
Class 

Book 

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COPYRIGHT DEPOSE!* 



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The smallest body, or molecule, has four parts. 



#^6lV^? 



THE COMMON -SENSE PHILOSOPHY 
OF SPIRIT OR PSYCHOLOGY 



WRITTEN FROM SPIRIT IMPRESSION 



BY 
CHARLES H. FOSTER 

OF ALAMEDA, CALIFORNIA 



fSW 



SAN FRANCISCO 
I 9 O I 



THE LIBRARY O 
CONGRESS, 

Two Copies Received 

MAR. 28 1901 

Copyright entry 

CLASS <»^XXc. N» 

COPY B. 






Copyright, 28th January, 1901 
By C. H. FOSTER. 



ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. 



• '• • ~ » 



KATIE'S LEGACY. 

To my clear daughter K't: 
Before entering the door of this college, 
First test and see that your mind he free, 
Ere seeking herein for knowledge. 
For as you receive these truths of mine, 
Shall I remain forever thine. 
Here 's Nature, grand, supreme, sublime ; 
There are no dead, there is not time, 
Nor yet no life, as toe '11 unfold, 
While heat there may be, yet no cold. 



CONTENTS. 



Page. 

Introductory 5 

ChapterI. The Atom 20 

II. First Impression —What is Truth — But Three Eter- 
nal Facts — Birth of the World 27 

III. Spirit Life— No Such Thing as Time— Atom Life 33 

IV. Sixth Sense— Growth of the Physical World — Birth 

of the Spirit World 37 

V. Development of a Medium— Spirit Hypnotism— Why- 
Darkness is Preferable 41 

VI. The Mystic Circle— Destiny 54 

VII. Sensitised, Progressed, or Spirit Ether— Spirit Return 

— Sympathetic Attraction 58 

VIII. Ponderable and Imponderable— Strange Gods 64 

IX. Healing by the Ultimate Atom 69 

X. A Little Grain of Corn, or The Quickening Germ 

of Life 76 



CONTENTS. 
Chapter. Page. 
XI. Hypnotism— You do not See with your Eyes 79 

XII. Reply to Professor Huxley on The Physical Basis 

of Life 84 

XIII. Prophecy . 89 

XIV. The Over-Soul, or God and its Affinity to Matter 92 

XV. God, Life and Over-Soul 99 

XVI. Vitality in Stones — A New Substance 102 

XVII. Spirit the Effect of Physical Cause — Condition of 

Childhood 108 

XVIII. Materialization — The Object of Materialization — 

Animal Curiosity — Educated Parrots 115 

XIX. That which Thinks Thoughts — Birth of the Spirit 

Body and the Soul— The Cause of all Causation... 122 

XX. Planetary and Elementary Spirits so-called — The 
Birth of Intelligence and Wisdom — Astral Shell 
—Reincarnation 131 

XXI. Animal Spirits— Will the World Eventually Turn to 
a Grease Spot?— Will we be Annoyed by Fleas 
and Things in the Spirit World? 143 

XXII. Clairvoyance— Clairaudience— Investigating Mater- 
ialization — Wonderful Manifestations 149 

XXIII. Parody on Common Sense 181 

XXIV. Birth-Marks 183 



CONTENTS. 
Chapter. Page. 
XXV. The Keystone, or A Peep Behind the Veil— The Brain 
the Highest Physical Matter — How a Child is 
Born Deaf and Dumb 191 

XXVI. Reason and Intelligence— Thought Transference — 
Hypnotic Subject — Your Thoughts are on the 
Outside of Your Brain 196 

XXVII. Spirit Double— Personating a Spirit 214 

XXVIII. There is no Death— Have you a Body ? 220 

XXIX. Is Physical Force Transniittible to Spirit and Vice 
Versa — Miracles — Passing Matter Through 
Matter— The Immortality of the Soul 225 

XXX. The First Dawn of the Spark of Life — Which was 

First, the Egg or the Chicken? 232 

XXXI. If no Matter is Destroyed, what Becomes of it? 240 

XXXII. What are Life and Matter Composed of ?— Psycho- 
physical— The Beginning of Sex 253 

XXXIII. Educated Mediums 267 

XXXIV. Is the Course of Life and Matter Forever Onward ? 275 

XXXV. A Question to Astronomers 282 

XXXVL Substance, Animation and Matter 303 

XXXVII. Descartes' Vortex versus Newton's Gravity— Phys- 
ical or Mechanical Force versus Atomic Energy 311 

XXXVIII. Placing the Keystone.... 323 



CONTENTS. 

Chapter. Page. 

XXXIX. Lower Physics — Psycho-Physics and Higher, or 

Metaphysics 330 

XL. A Comment on Max Muller's Philosophy of Thought 

— What is Rational Reason? 335 

XLI. Is it Right to Kill? 355 

XLII. A Review and Adieu 367 

The Obituary 370 

Independent Spirit- Writing 371 



INTRODUCTORY 



As the author of this work received what little edu- 
cation he has in the next thing to a log cabin, a single- 
room schoolhouse, we hope that " we deinn folks," 
at least, will be fair to middling in criticising our 
poverty in rhetorical flourishes, and will understand 
that an imj)ressional writer does not receive the 
WORDS from his control but that they come to him 
more in the form of a picture; he sees it, senses it, or 
just gets it. In fact, it is difficult to describe. You 
will understand that Truth and facts are not neces- 
sarily words which are only a convenience made by 
man, who is not infallible. It is not in the power of 
man to give to the world reliable instruction when 
starting from a point in the UNKNOWN and, we may 
say, UNKNOWABLE. 

Nearly all philosophers who have given to the 
world treatises on metaphysics, from Bruno to Kant, 
have invariably started from the wrong end of the 
question by assuming as their first postulate that 
which we think should have been their very last and 
highest conclusion, namely: A FIRST CAUSE. A 
thing, if existing, must, from the very nature of the 
thing, be forever beyond the comprehension of finite 



(6) 

man, and would be better understood as a LAST 
CAUSE, so far as the object of the investigator is con- 
cerned. For if man should ever reach that knowledge, 
it would naturally be the last end of his labor and not 
the first. By pursuing the course they have they were 
compelled, from the start, to build in the dark on an 
unknown quantity and quality for a foundation. From 
working the question, first on a downward course of 
reasoning from an assumed first cause to the physical 
world and then trying to retrace their logic back to 
this imaginary starting-point, they found it invari- 
ably left the result of their labor in a chaotic state 
which neither satisfied themselves or the student. 

While such a course of reasoning may be good 
enough for the Church, to prove the Bible right by the 
Church/and the Church right by the Bible, yet it does 
not satisfy the Truth. 

Would these same philosophers consider it a proper 
course to instruct a child in the mysteries of Euclid 
by beginning with the classics, or would they begin 
with the numerals and multiplication table? Would 
they begin to teach a boy how to construct a com- 
pound steam-engine by giving him charge of the en- 
gineer's department of an ocean steamer? Recogniz- 
ing this as the cause of their failure in the past, and 
seeing the utter impossibility of man's ever being able 
to prove a first cause, the very nature of which places 
it forever beyond human comprehension, we, in this 



(7 ) 

work, have thought it advisable to begin at the little 
end (the atom) and trace upwards from effect to 
cause, instead of from cause to effect. By assuming 
this position we are not required to say to our student 
at the very beginning of his labor : " Just please ac- 
cept our first postulate, ex nihilo nihil fit, and leave 
reason behind," for you must take it for granted that 
only in this one instance was the very first cause from 
nothing, but all else, my son, had a cause. 

" In the beginning was God." Well, how about be- 
fore this beginning? No, my friend; such logic will 
convince no one, for, however reluctant man is to ac- 
knowledge his ignorance, this is a case where he has 
just got to, whether he likes it or not, so we might as 
well be honest about it and say we do not know that 
it is a person, a being, an idea, or a condition, and all 
that we do know is that life exists (i. e., as thought 
and force). 

By starting our investigations from the atom of life 
and matter we assume nothing, but have a known and 
fixed point of demarcation to work from, and by fol- 
lowing on such lines of truth as have already been 
proven such (i. e., from effect to cause), we have the 
satisfaction of being able to prove our work as we 
proceed. In this manner we will endeavor to lead the 
student to the knoivn truth of spirit. From this point 
we have the right to form an a priori opinion ; but one 
step further and we will infer that from Spirit is pro- 



(8 ) 

duced a Soul ; beyond this point all is purely conjec- 
ture, even Avith the spirit. 

Furthermore, you may examine the chain we have 
wrought for you now that we think that we have com- 
pleted it, from either end you please, either from ef- 
fect to cause or from cause to effect, and see if you can 
find a reasonable flaw, bearing in mind that, 

The noblest attribute of man is to be charitable in 
your thoughts of others. 

Recognizing the extreme difficulty of teaching the 
essence of the Occult Science in such a way as will en- 
able us to place this little volume in the hands of the 
middle class of people, we thought our work could 
best be accomplished by adhering as closely as pos- 
sible to the following common-sense rules : 

First. — To boil it down to as few words as possible. 

Second. — To refrain from ambiguous words and 
stick to plain United States. 

Third. — Recognizing, as we do, that all religions or 
creeds are founded on Truth and the good of mankind, 
—as they understand it, — and that the intentions of 
the founders of all creeds were pure and sincere, and 
knowing, as we do from experience and otherwise, 
that the universe is constructed upon that mystic law 
of the positive and negative of life and matter, we rec- 
ognize that for man or spirit to do and to act good 
is to acknowledge the presence of the negative of good, 
which is error. 



: 



(9) 

Here we assert that wherever roan finds error or 
evil there also will he find good, if he is anxious to find 
the one as the other ; for it is not only the nature but 
the necessity for the existence of the one to be found 
in company of the other; i. e., the positive and the 
negative. Nor will this condition be changed until 
all shall have become at one with Infinite, or Perfec- 
tion. Hence you will perceive the impossibility of a 
so-called Millennium. 

In all teachings where a body of people join togeth- 
er for the promulgating of some discovered or re- 
vealed truth, there is to be found a certain percentage 
of error; and it would appear from past experiences 
that the older the creed the more the weeds accumu- 
late. But be the weeds ever so thick, the truth that ex- 
ists among the weeds should ever be man's most 
sacred charge, and to bring thr .3 truths to light his 
bounden duty to progression. 

In this work we have endeavored to steer clear of 
those shoals that have in the past wrecked so many 
creeds. In particular, we have not advanced or at- 
tempted to sustain any part of this work on belief; 
nor do we appeal to your credulity or offer you our 
own opinion, but offer you known scientific facts in 
one unbroken chain of evidence which must appeal to 
your own reasonable common sense. 

We deny that any thing was ever created, or that 
there is one particle of known evidence in existence to 



( io ) 

sustain the theory that some thing can be, or ever was, 
produced from nothing, and we claim that all known 
scientific researches lead directly to the contrary. 
For the enlightened mind at this advanced age to en- 
tertain such a preposterous supposition or belief is 
to erect one of the false gods which this work has en- 
deavored to overthrow. 

In our use of the words positive and negative we 
wish to be understood as having reference to the op- 
posites, such as with the crooked you have straight, 
good and bad, love and hate, attraction and repulsion, 
sleeping and awakening, truth and error, etc. We 
have also refrained from abusing the other lawyer; 
nor have we been compelled to wander off into a lofty 
flow of rhetoric, in order to show our want of live mat- 
ter to consume printer's ink — for, had we done so, we 
should have defeated the very object of this work, 
which is intended as a guide or text-book on only 
known laws and facts, laid down in an abstract man- 
ner. Another object was that it might be the means 
of saving the young investigator a few dollars and 
some time, by steering him in the right direction. We 
think, at least, that after he reads this book carefully 
he will not invest five dollars in so-called magnetized 
slates. However, I shall be sorry if I shall have 
robbed him of some of the supposed sweets that gen- 
erally accompany the kissing and hugging of his best 
girl when she comes in the form of a materialized 









( 11 ) 

spirit. (With all due respect to the spirit or autom- 
aton. Ahem!) 

The author will here state the circumstances which 
induced him to undertake this work, and the reader 
must use his own judgment as to the truth or proba- 
bility of the deductions that it was written under 
spirit control, for I have no proofs to offer except the 
book itself. It is my desire that the compiler will 
place the various days, months, years, etc., at such 
points in the writings as he finds them in the manu- 
script. This will, I hope, be some evidence. 

For about a month previous to January 5, 1894, 
some power seemed to continually urge me to take up 
a blank tablet and write. Well, I knew that I could 
not write as I could wish, and I was afraid of a fail- 
ure. Finally it grew so very urgent that I picked up 
the book, sharpened a pencil, — and positively, reader, 
I had not the slightest idea what I was going to write. 
As soon as I placed the pencil on the paper, the first 
sentence came into my mind, and by the time I had 
that down another sentence took its place. It did not 
appear to make any difference how fast I wrote, the 
other sentence was always ready; in fact, I soon 
learned that the faster I wrote and the less I tried to 
think, the better I progressed. This would continue 
until I had written about six or seven hundred words, 
when right in the middle of a sentence some times, 
the force, intelligence, or whatever it was, would leave 



( 12 ) 

me, and I could not think of a word to save me. The 
next day, about the same time, the same desire to 
write would come over me, and away we would go 
again. After I would get through, it was just as in- 
teresting to me as though I had never seen it before. 
This would keep up sometimes for three or four days ; 
then I would not be able to write for several days. 
Then the power left me for over a year, then stayed 
for a week, and again left a breach of one and a half 
years, beginning again in February, 1897. 

At this time I found that I could write almost con- 
tinuously. After looking over the writings, I seldom 
ever changed a word or made a correction ; all told, I 
probably changed in the whole volume one hundred 
words. I do not claim the article on healing or my ex- 
perience with mediums as impressional, but the rest 
of this book certainly is, to the best of my knowledge, 
for several explanations found within were entirely 
contrary to my previous convictions, — especially so 
the article on the automaton theory of materialization 
and the declination of the earth's axis. Again you 
must remember that it should cut no figure with you 
by whom or how the work was done; the Devil could 
utter a truth as well as a saint. It is not a question as 
to who Galileo was, or whether such a man lived or 
not. The question is : Is it a truth, and will it bene- 
fit man to know it? I cannot see that the personality 
of the author has anything to do with it whatever. 



(13) 



NOTICE TO THE READER. 



We would most respectfully call the attention of the 
reader of this book to the most important considera- 
tion of all, and that is : Do not attempt to read this 
book, in particular, if you are at the same time think- 
ing of what you are going to have for dinner, or how 
your new dress fits, or the state of the wheat market ; 
when you do get started with it, and you find yourself 
getting sleepy, for God's sake, lay it down and take a 
nap. If any one should annoy you at the time, offer to 
loan them the book, stating that you will finish it 
when they are through ; for unless you can raise your 
moral courage to that extent and be able to enter into 
the spirit of the subject, or read between the lines, so 
to speak, it will be perfectly useless for you to attempt 
the study of so delicate a subject as metaphysics. 
Neither will it benefit you to skip through it in a cur- 
sory manner, as you will find that each succeeding 
page is but the result of the preceding one, our object 
being from the beginning to start the edifice from 
the foundation (an atom), knowing full well that we 
should find a place for the keystone when we had to 
use it. 

We most sincerely hope that the reader will meet 
with the same success. 

One writing from impression stands in relation to 
the information received in the same light or position 



(14) 

as the shorthand reporter to a court. He is simply a 
machine putting down in symbols representing cer- 
tain vibratory waves of motion or sound that which 
you call language, and is not responsible for the truth 
or philosophy of that which he records. 

The impressional writer gets his information in the 
form of a mental or illustrational picture of those 
truths or facts which the higher spirit intelligence 
wishes to convey to their reporter or sensitive. Here 
you will observe that somewhat similar laws govern 
the accuracy of both reports ; i. e., if the court report- 
er, for instance, should be slightly indisposed from 
various physical causes, — loss of sleep, pressed for 
money, on a tear, sickness, etc., — he may be slow to 
catch or note every sound called language, and in 
his anxiety to keep up with his work, he may make his 
notes a trifle too short; then when he comes to put his 
notes into typewriting, those places where he has 
" foreshortened " his already shorthand, he is com- 
pelled to coin his own language. 

Hence you will be generous enough to allow that 
the impressional writer, being physical, must of ne- 
cessity be subject to the same liabilities; hence the 
necessity of the reader using extreme care in receiv- 
ing any and all so-called spirit communications, 
whether in inspirational speaking, clairvoyant or im- 
pressional writing, — for if with the very best of court 
reporters errors will creep in while receiving the 



(15) 

words themselves on the auditory nerve, how much 
more difficult must it be for a sensitive to properly 
place in language those truths conveyed to him 
through impression? Is not his physical body subject 
to the same errors of the flesh? The fact of his being 
a sensitive does not emancipate him from these er- 
rors of inharmony any more than any other mortal. 

This idea, which many investigators of spirit phe- 
nomena have, that because John Jones is a medium, 
then per se, he is a sort of tin god on wheels, is all non- 
sense; for, of a truth, all mortals -are mediums, — 't is 
only a question of degree, the same as reason and in- 
telligence. There is no gulf separating the least from 
the greatest, — merely a question of addition, or a 
uniting of the units. 

Note : By the above explanation, a just and impar- 
tial critic or student of this work, we hope, will un- 
derstand that in reading a report of any work on the 
philosophy of metaphysics, if he wishes to arrive at 
the spirit of the communication, he should not take 
every word as an absolute and unalterable statement 
of all the essential facts. 

As every individual has his own peculiar manner of 
arriving at conclusions of the various phenomena as 
they present themselves for consideration, yet, after 
all is said, the abstract question is: Does this road 
also lead to Rome? 

One of the objects of human life, as we understand 



( 16 ) 

it, is to gather wisdom from experience, and, as one of 
the essentials to wisdom is time, you will perceive 
that it requires a vast deal of time to travel all of the 
various roads to Rome before you are enabled to ar- 
rive at even a partially correct opinion of which is the 
most advisable road to follow; i. e., which of the vari- 
ous philosophical statements up to the present day 
makes the most direct appeal to common sense as to 
the abstract truth of the cause of causation. 

P. S. — The student or reader of this little book will 
observe that we have frequently written in the first, 
second, or third person. The best explanation that I, 
the amanuensis, can offer is, that you, the reader, 
will find, as you advance in the book, that Ptolemy 
cautioned me that I must learn to separate my 
thoughts from his. As I told him at the time, I was 
afraid that was easier said than done. I find in look- 
ing over the work that I was pretty nearly correct, and, 
therefore, Avould ask the reader to use his or her own 
judgment in the matter, for now I have about finished 
the work, I find it still a difficult thing to do. As it is 
a question of revolutionary as well as evolutionary 
truth bearing on the old accepted philosophy, the 
question of who is writing it or whether all the con- 
ventional rules of writing have been adhered to should 
cut no figure as to the abstract truth of the deductions 
here advanced. Yours in charity of thought, 

C. H. Foster. 



( 17 ) 



PHILOSOPHY VEKSUS SCHOLASTIC 
THEOLOGY. 



To the student we wish to say, that in beginning 
your search after the absolute truth of the cause 
of causation, we think that you will be willing to ad- 
mit that the first and most essential consideration on 
your part is to determine whether you have arrived 
at that condition in life that you can for a fact declare 
that your mind, conscience, or will is in a free condi- 
tion, and not at all tinctured or influenced by either 
your previous teachings or fixed opinions to such an 
extent as would debar you the free exercise of your 
five natural senses ; through and by which all men in 
their individual capacity must, if free, determine for 
themselves as to the simple truth of all phenomena. 

If this be the fact, it would appear to us that, in 
beginning our investigations, the first move should 
be to fully inform ourselves as to the difference be- 
tween Theory and Facts, Belief and Knowledge, or 
the hereditary teachings of the opinions of others, or 
so-called Faith, and the facts furnished you from the 
experience gained through the evidence of your own 
natural senses when applied to the subject in a 
rational manner. 



(18) 

Hence we are presumptuous enough to hope that 
the student will pardon us when we say that this is 
the gulf that always has remained, and probably ever 
will remain, as an impassable barrier between Knowl- 
edge and Belief, Keason and Superstition, or common 
sense and scholasticism. 

In order that the student may be enabled to in a 
measure judge the state of his own mind, or I am, as 
regards to whether he is free, we will lend him a scale 
to temporarily measure his idea of freedom; which 
scale is : Man for a fact knows nothing. 

He only arrives at a conception of what appears or 
seems to him to exist as a truth or fact by the applica- 
tion of his five senses, and as it is conceded by all pro- 
found thinkers that no two individuals arrive at 
precisely the same opinion, — i. e., word for word, — 
in describi ^ome one thing which they have wit- 
nessed at the fectm3 moment of time, then this of itself 
is sufficient evidence that the physical senses are not 
absolute evidence of truth. 

Hence we deduce that all so-called knowledge is 
only relative seeming, or appearing to be so. For, as 
all is ceaseless motion, then all is ceaselessly chan- 
ging, — i. e., Thought, Force, and Substance; and as 
thought is the basis of knowledge, it follows, that that 
which was knowledge at one second has changed in 
the next second ; which would place it only relatively 
to that which has passed, and if this be the truth, it 



(19) 

would naturally follow that human existence is not a 
real but a relative condition. 

This is the philosopher's scale which we loan to you 
for this occasion, the reasonable application of which 
depends entirely upon your own unbiased common 
sense. 



(20) 



CHAPTEK I. 

THE ATOM. 

As the foundation of this work is based upon the 
atom, it is permissible for us to inquire : What is an 
atom? And as it is of the utmost importance that the 
reader should fully and clearly comprehend what that 
atom really and practically is in all its various con- 
ditions, positions, and compositions, in order that all 
visionary or chimerical ideas may be entirely re- 
moved from your mind, we will endeavor to give you a 
plain and simple definition. 

First. An atom is that single piece of matter that 
is so small as to be no longer susceptible of a divi- 
sion into more than one part. 

Second. It is the beginning or birth of the three 
dimensions of length, breadth, and thickness, and the 
first occupant of space, or the unit of commensura- 
tion. 

You will first understand that there are really two 
classes of atoms. The first atom we will designate the 
infinite atom, which is only recognized by science in a 
conjectural sense and this conjecture is from the 
known fact that, as far as the ingenuity of man has 



(21 ) 

been enabled to go, either in chemistry or with the 
most powerful microscope, we find clear and abundant 
proof that it is impossible for the mind of man to com- 
prehend a last division of matter ; hence we are com- 
pelled to designate it as the Infinite atom, and outside 
the comprehension of man, and, being such, you will 
perceive it would be a useless waste of time for man to 
try to comprehend that which is incomprehensible. 

We will therefore take up the second class of atoms, 
to which, in this work, we have given the appellation 
of the ultimate atom, for the very good reason that it 
is the ultimate limit of human comprehension of the 
subdivision of matter. We will first define this atom 
as a Thing which is the very next akin to No Thing, 
or nothing, and just barely within the limit of com- 
prehension by man when observed in the accumulated 
form of countless numbers, such as the so-called tail 
of a comet, the light of the sun, or the most minute 
microscopic object. No human being ever has or ever 
will be able to see sl single ultimate atom, even when 
the sense of sight is aided by the most powerful micro- 
scope. Take, for instance, the smallest object on 
the field of your microscope; in order to see 
it you are compelled to gather together count- 
less thousands of other single atoms of light, 
by means of your reflecting mirror, and concen- 
trate them on the object in order to aid the optic nerve 
in sensing it ; the very fact of your being able to see it 



( 22 ) 

even in this manner is practical proof that it is again 
subject to division; for, in your mind, you can con- 
ceive of a half or a tenth part of that which the aided 
eye beholds. As this fact proves that the mind of man 
has no idea of the amount of space a single atom oc- 
cupies, then it becomes evident that no man can say 
or know whether this microscopic object is composed 
of a hundred, a thousand, or even a million of single 
atoms. 

You will also bear in mind that sound is matter in 
motion, in the form of vibratory waves. Now, try to 
conceive of the condition of that matter when set in 
motion by the wing of a mosquito ; or take atmospher- 
ic air, which is a composition of other atoms, — if you 
cannot see an atom of air, how much smaller are the 
atoms of oxygen or nitrogen which compose the air. 

As the atom is no longer subject to division, it be- 
comes the only Thing which you can truthfully call a 
SOLID for all other matter would be composed of 
more than one atom and, as the atoms when in groups 
of two or more, do not touch each other but have a 
space between equal to their own diameter (see Physi- 
cal Chemistry), then it is a self-evident fact that no 
object matter can be solid. 

By this analysis of the first, or undeveloped, atom of 
matter, you will see that man can not have any real 
knowledge of what matter is composed of; we are 
only made aware of its actual existence after it has 



( 23 ) 

passed through at least one, if not several, changes, by 
its joining itself to another atom. In this work, there- 
fore, we designate it as the point of beginning of hi 
man comprehension, and will request the readers to 
keep this fact at all times foremost in their minds 
while studying the various positions in which they 
will be called upon to view and weigh this ATOM in 
the many changes we shall be required to place it as 
we advance in our endeavors to unfold to you the many 
almost insurmountable difficulties surrounding the 
MYSTIC TEMPLE of LIFE and the ATOM. 

Which was constructed from the FIRST to the 
LAST, of the LEAST and the GREATEST, for the 
BEGINNING and the END. 

In these our primary remarks we use the term atom 
of matter; but as the student advances out of the old 
orthodox philosophy, that all is matter, we shall en- 
deavor to gradually develop the understanding as to 
the difference between matter and substance. (See 
Chapter XXXVI.) 

In order that the lay mind or student may be en- 
abled to clearly comprehend the vital importance of 
the atom, and the part it will be called upon to play in 
this volume, we will here present a practical illustra- 
tion by taking four marbles and assume that each 
marble represents an atom and that each atom is a 
point in space. It is a conceded fact that a point has 
neither length, breadth, nor thickness. 



( 24) 

Figure 1 represents the beginning or promise 
of mathematics or extension, but not mathe- 
Fig - x matics or extension itself. When two atoms 
come together, as in Figure 2, we have the birth of 
one of the three dimensions of space, — i. e. 
length or extension only, — and the prom- 
ise of a form; when these are joined by a Fig * 2 - 
*m- >mK third atom, as in Figure 3, we have the 
<Egpf birth of the second dimension, — i. e. 
W? breadth, and also the birth of form, in the 
Fig. 3. form of a triangle; when these three are 
joined by the fourth atom, we have the full 
birth of the three dimensions, — i. e. thick- 
ness, — as shown in Figure 4. This is the 
birth of a body or a body of physical Fig - 4 - 
matter. This is the first appearance of a molecule of 
matter composed of four atoms of substance; it now 
has an interior, and only at this stage is it for the first 
time subject to involution or capable of receiving 
something within a body that was evolved from one 
atom, the only one thing that is absolutely solid being 
no longer divisible. ( See Chapter XXXIX. ) 

Ether, or spirit, is but another name for the atoms 
of substance that fill all space. 'T is often called a 
fluid, and is so mentioned on account of its exceeding 
fineness, which allows it to penetrate — or perhaps we 
might say, permeate — all known forms or so-called 
solids. You must remember that up to the present 



V 






( 25 ) 

date the extent of human knowledge as to the number 
of simple substances is but sixty-five, which is but a 
fractional part of the whole. 

The peculiar properties of the various substances 
that are yet to be developed by the onward march of 
evolution and harnessed for the benefit of mankind, 
you cannot form the slightest idea of; yet you are 
aware from a backward glance that additions are fre- 
quently being made to the number known. Some phi- 
losophers are inclined to draw a distinction between 
this ether and substance, but they are wrong; for if it 
had an actual existence apart from atomic substance, 
how could you recognize it? What would be its func- 
tional relation to the three dimensions? 

As we advance in this work Ave shall endeavor to 
show you that the position this ether occupies is as 
an atmosphere, and is both ponderable and imponder- 
able, but substance nevertheless, and is the source 
from whence all forms draw their supply of life, force, 
intelligence, and material to build from, and is cease- 
lessly flowing through the earth, the sea,, and the sky ; 
in its passage, leaving a little of its own vitality while 
removing that which has accomplished its object in the 
lower form of expressed life to a higher state of pro- 
gression. 

Were it possible for you to stand in space ten thou- 
sand miles away and hold up in your hand a cambric 
needle, the extreme point of this needle would touch 



( 26 ) 

thousands of single atoms at the same instant, and 
each atom would be in possession of its proportional 
share of life, force, and intelligence. 

In order that you may form some idea of how it is 
possible for the various atomic substances — i. e. pro- 
gressed and unprogressed, ponderable and imponder- 
able^ — to work out each its own destiny in, around, and 
about the earth, without coming into serious conflict 
with its neighbor, though operating in a complete vor- 
tex whirl, we will illustrate it in this manner: By 
giving you an Argus eye, we will place you in a posi- 
tion over the city of New York and allow you to behold 
every individual in that city at precisely the same 
moment, say three o'clock p. m v and their occupations 
at the time. Here you will observe generosity and 
avarice, the sick and well, rich and poor, the idiotic 
and the philosopher ; in fact, you will find red spirits 
and white, black spirits and gray, mingle, mingle, 
mingle, you who mingle may. Each individual ap- 
parently with but one idea and object, — i. e. the world 
was made expressly for ME and the balance of human- 
ity. 

Would not this picture represent a complete vortex, 
and, though each single individual ( or atom ) appears 
to be solely concerned with his own personal affairs, 
yet there is a law or influence flowing through, regu- 
lating and governing the whole mass. 



(27 ) 
CHAPTEK II. 

FIRST IMPRESSION. 

What is Truth f — But three Eternal Facts — Birth 
of the World. 

Alameda, January 5, 1894. 

After about three years of investigation of what is 
called spirit return, I am impressed to write the con- 
clusions I have so far come to up to the present date, 
believing that I will get other facts from time to time, 
as I advance into that sensitive condition, that may 
change some of my present deductions. 

I began by spending about one thousand dollars in 
the space of six months for private and public sittings 
With Mrs. Helen Fairchild for the purpose of positive- 
ly assuring myself of the fact of full form Materializa- 
tion, Trumpet Voices, Materialized Voices, Independ- 
ent Writing, Clairvoyance, etc., which I soon found to 
be an absolute fact. Then commenced within mean 
uncontrollable desire to know the mysterious law or 
process by which it was done. During my sittings 
with Mrs. Fairchild, there came to me many spirits 
who, from their conversations and general appear- 
ances, seemed to me to be those whom they repre- 



(28) 

sented themselves to be. One of these in particular, 
I wish to say, gave me the name of Ptolemy Philadel- 
phus, the second of the reign of the Ptolemies in 
Egypt, who was able to give me much assistance and 
information necessary for me to have in order to ar- 
rive at a proper understanding of the different bear- 
ings or relations each part of this wonderful truth 
bore to the whole or part of the whole. At the end of 
about two years I found, by following his instructions, 
that, at times, I could bring myself into some kind of 
a rapport with an intelligence (and that is the only 
word that will truthfully express it) that would clear- 
ly, practically, and scientifically explain many of the 
phenomena that I have witnessed. And I wish the 
reader of this to understand that the intelligence or 
information was not given in any language contain- 
ing words. This will make it difficult for me to put 
it into words, as I may, from time to time, have to coin 
or invent a word to practically convey my meaning. 

Here again I wish particularly to notify the reader 
of several facts which are absolutely necessary for 
their proper guidance in forming their opinion of such 
of the laws and facts as to what is the simple truth 
and what is only belief. 



(29) 

WHAT IS TRUTH? 

First, when I speak of what I knoio, I do so fully 
realizing the meaning of the word, — i. e. that one or 
all of my five or six senses as can be brought to bear 
on the matter under investigation by me in my normal 
state of mind has been so applied as free from a priori 
opinion as an ordinary mortal is usually expected to 
be on a witness-stand. Hereafter, throughout this 
book, when I say I know I wish to be understood as 
having applied the above senses and when I say I be- 
lieve or conclude, I only mean that I draw my deduc- 
tions from what I know. The reader, in order to do 
justice to himself or herself (and the sought-for 
truth), should hold their opinion in check until they 
have finished the reading of this work to its end ; for 
only one who is capable of so doing is at all qualified 
to sit in a jury-box and act as a just judge of the Truth 
on any matter, and particularly so on the fact of a 
sixth sense or the facts and fallacies of spirit return. 

BUT THREE ETERNAL FACTS. 

And now as to what I know. I know that there are 
but three eternal facts which are: Life, Matter, and 
Space, — and so does all the human family, yourself in- 
cluded. Life could not make itself manifest without 
matter and space; matter could not exist without 



(30 ) 

life and space, and is but the expression of life; and 
all three facts are each and all beyond human (and, I 
believe, spirit) comprehension. Now, let us see what 
we know in regard to these three things. All men 
of ordinary intelligence will admit that life produces 
energy, energy produces force, force produces motion, 
and motion produces change, which is ceaseless. All 
this tends to establish the grand law of evolution. 



BIRTH OF THE WORLD. 

We know again that matter is divided into two 
parts — ponderable and imponderable. While we ac- 
knowledge our inability to comprehend infinite mat- 
ter, let us begin at that point of matter where human 
comprehension is supposed to begin, — the microcosm 
or atom of imponderable matter, such as light, heat, 
magnetism, etc., — and proceed to build a world. Now, 
there being no such thing as a vacuum or a space not 
containing anything (matter), then it follows that 
space, the third known fact, is filled with the ultimate 
atoms of imponderable matter, and, as each atom has 
atomic life, there we have the corner-stone of our pro- 
posed world, for in that live atom we find our first 
fundamental principles — force, motion, and change. 

Now, we find motion also produces friction, friction 
produces electricity, and electricity produces magne- 
tism, and by this known fact of magnetism we produce 



(31 ) 

attraction. And now we will lay this corner-stone of 
our proposed world by attracting one atom to another 
until we have an embryo world in the form of a gas- 
eous body similar to, if not actually, a comet's tail, 
composed of atoms so attenuated that a mass of them 
ten thousand miles thick does not obstruct the human 
vision from the stars beyond. And so, behold, we have 
an accouchement, — behold the new-born world ! And, 
strange to observe, not once have we been called on to 
create something out of nothing, but simply have ap- 
plied the known truths of evolution. 

And now, after having assumed the responsibility 
of projecting this new-born world into the eternal fam- 
ily of accumulated life, we deem it incumbent upon us 
to provide a suitable nurse, to whom we will give the 
name of Soul. She, we find, is superior to matter in 
the unit or single ultimate, although only produced by 
that affinity which in itself is first produced by the 
joining of the first two atoms, understood as positive 
and negative; they, the first positive and negative, 
being the Father and Mother of what we of the earth 
life understand as electro-magnetic attraction. Now 
we instruct the nurse that the Soul, being superior to 
matter or next above in degree toward what we call 
God or Over- Soul, we seat her over these two atoms, 
telling her one known truth: First, that she is and 
here represents that mystic symbol known in the 
brotherhood of the Mystic Circle as the BEGINNING 



(32) 

and the END, where the FIRST shall be LAST and 
the LAST shall be FIRST. 

And now we give unto this nurse her first instruc- 
tions : We give unto thee as a tried and trusted mem- 
ber of our Brotherhood of spheres (worlds) all 
sufficient power to reach out and gather in a 
sufficient number of atoms, or world-food, through the 
influence of the positive and negative law to nourish 
this infant world; be ye careful at the same time to 
infuse into its corporate life those Mystic attributes 
of which you have been given a knowledge: to wit, 
Love, Truth, and Charity, for thus we Involve to be 
again Evolved, round and round, on and on and on, 
until your work as an object world shall have been 
finished, when you, in turn, shall place the labor of 
your Earth Life into the hands of those of the next 
in degree, which is Spirit Life, there to begin again a 
cycle at the threshold of a higher comprehension. 



(33) 



CHAPTER III. 

SPIRIT LIFE. 

No such thing as time — Atom life and the sixth 
sense — Investigating phenomena. 

NO SUCH THING AS TIME. 

Before we begin this subject it is necessary to un- 
derstand one fact : that, in our endeavor to arrive at 
a correct solution of the phenomena now occurring 
throughout the world, it will be necessary for the 
reader to bear one fact in mind, — i. e. that there is no 
such thing as time. Time is only a man-made rule or 
gauge to measure events by, for, in the vast field of 
eternity to recognize time is to recognize a beginning 
which often proves a will-o'-the-wisp to confuse and 
mislead the student. However, we may occasionally 
be required to use it as a comparison, that you may 
more readily grasp our meaning; therefore we will 
class it as the godfather of Evolution, at least as far 
as this and the spirit world is concerned. And, if in 
this work we shall succeed in solving the riddle of 
these two worlds, the ponderable and the imponder- 



(34 ) 

able (spirit) world, I think we will find the atmos- 
phere sufficiently cleared thereby to give us at least 
a beautiful dream of the home of the Soul. 



ATOM LIFE. 

Atom Life, Object or Physical Life, and Soul Life. 

All atoms are either positive or negative. When 
the first two atoms of any object life come together by 
attraction we have the first stage of embryo life, and 
right there begins our time and also the first appear- 
ance and comprehension of electro-magnetic attrac- 
tion, from out of the mysteries of those three known 
truths, Life, Matter, and Space. What mind can com- 
prehend the size of these atoms when brought together 
as one united whole; yet that is also a fact. Now, 
throughout the mass of the united whole, is ceaselessly 
passing a life principle. Let us, for the purpose of a 
partial comprehension, call this over-life the over-soul 
influence, or God ; 't is but a name, a handle, a con- 
venience to truth. 

The same law that caused two atoms to come togeth- 
er will cause any number to come together. Now, 
when, as before mentioned, the positive and negative 
meet, there we first establish a current. Bear in mind 
that I do not mean to assert that this is the same kind 
of electro-magnetism in every-day use for mercantile 
purposes, but something similar in its operation. It 



(35 ) 

is that super-sensitive magnetism that is the real 
connecting-link that binds this ponderable, or object 
matter, with the imponderable, or spirit world, and 
where it is necessary to have a battery called a sensi- 
tive, or medium. This link is best understood as a 
sixth sense, and can be developed in any human being 
to a more or less degree and, as we know that there are 
no two things alike, then it follows that no two medi- 
ums are alike. 

INVESTIGATING PHENOMENA 

To properly investigate these phenomena one should 
distinctly understand that spirits are really but man 
after all, only in a sublimated state or condition ; they 
are subject to all the errors and many of the mistakes 
of man, and when you come to consider that they have 
to voice such truths as they may have gathered in their 
new condition, through a medium, that they still are 
laboring under a very grave difficulty in having only 
a physical man brought to that super-sensitive condi- 
tion and only to that fineness that the medium's own 
organism will admit. As there are no two organisms 
or sole conditions alike, either on the earth or on the 
spirit plane, then it stands to reason that the one who 
wishes to know or to be able to draw as near the Truth 
as possible should go to, say not less than twenty medi- 
ums. Let these mediums have their own way entirely. 



(36 ) 

Do not, under any circumstances, let them know what 
your object is. Talk but little nor give them any clew 
to work on, for the medium's control can sense what 
is on your mind when the conditions are favorable 
for so doing. Keep your mind in as negative a condi- 
tion as you possibly can. Be kind and gentle to the 
medium, let your opinion of the medium be what it 
may. For you must remember that to be a good in- 
strument is to be able to throw yourself into a highly 
nervous or sensitive condition. This I absolutely 
know from my own feelings. Now, after having sat 
privately with twenty or more, then sum up, as it were, 
the general results, and, if you know how, divide by 
twenty, and you arrive at a generally correct idea. 



(37 ) 



CHAPTER IV. 

DEVELOPMENT OF THE SIXTH SENSE. 

Growth of the World — Birth of the Spirit World. 

Speaking from my own experience, as regards the 
development of the sixth sense, I must admit that all 
the way through the last four years it has been one 
agreeable surprise after another in finding all rules, 
regulations, laws, and advice as laid down by the dif- 
ferent wiseacres entirely different from what I had 
expected to find them, which has about convinced me 
that every person has a different life-aura, or magne- 
tism, — just as different as one man's countenance is 
from another's; and every one that sits to develop 
this sixth sense will find it out as they advance, and 
not before. And here let me say that it being a super- 
magnetic force or law, you will find that it is a physi- 
cal or practical fact that like attracts like. Hence the 
law of the gold atom attracting gold, iron attracting 
iron, apple attracting apple, rose attracting rose, etc. 

Where do you suppose the millions of atoms come 
from that go to build the object life called an apple? 
Do you say as of old, " Oh, the mysteries of God are 



(38) 

past finding out "? Then burn this book and live on 
in ignorance. I say this super-sensitive magnetism 
that holds or draws the ultimates of matter together, 
being governed by that particular object life of the 
apple, which object life is again governed by the over- 
soul or life of our world as a whole world, said world 
again being governed by the infinite life which flows 
through and penetrates every spot of unknown eter- 
nity, which I call the over-soul of life. 

Do not be in a hurry at this point, my dear reader, 
but take a retrospective view from this point back- 
ward, step by step, in the regular known order of such 
of the established laws of Evolution as have already 
been acknowledged by your most enlightened minds, 
and note with care how all the various degrees of 
change have taken place, from the first point of man's 
comprehension, from the ultimate atom, to the second 
change in evolution, which is the invisible or magnetic 
body. 

GROWTH OF THE WORLD. 

Next, we have, when a sufficient bulk of these atoms 
is drawn together, — say, for the purpose of compre- 
hension, a sphere of one million miles in diameter, — 
there, in the very center, reason teaches us, will be the 
greatest density, when we have the third change in 
evolution ; for this pressure, however slight at the sur- 
face of this sphere, is of sufficient force to produce 



( 39 ) 

luminosity at the center, the attraction being toward 
the center. After the fullness of time, or a period 
which may be aeons of ages, with the assistance of the 
life force permeating through the whole mass, it takes 
on the fourth change of a fluid condition, a liquid, 
purifying fire, changing the whole into one homogen- 
eous mass. This immense heat drives off that impon- 
derable matter (it is the only name at this stage that 
I can find for it), such as steam, atmospheric and 
other gases, while the heated sphere, together with its 
outer environments, air, etc., throws off still another 
matter, which is about the beginning of the fifth 
change, for at this point in evolution a very important 
factor is introduced or produced, to wit, The Spirit 
World. 

BIRTH OF THE SPIRIT WORLD. 

which is that part of the first or primeval matter that 
has passed through the fire of, let us say, purification, 
and is the beginning of that mystic circle known to the 
highly sensitized organism as the spirit world, and 
from this stage on constant additions are being made 
to it from spirit emanations of imponderable matter 
from this lower or ponderable world as they reach 
their several stages of the highest possible earth de- 
velopment or unfoldment. This spirit sphere is gath- 
ered around the earth planet in something the same 
manner as heat is thrown off from a red-hot cannon- 



(40) 

ball, i. e. the last and densest emanations being next 
the surface of our earth. 

.Now while these imponderable atoms have reached 
their highest unfoldment as ponderable or earth mat- 
ter, the dross is thrown back into the mills of the gods 
(Earth) their impurities there to be ground over and 
over by the forces of evolution until they, in their turn, 
become spiritualized. 

Here let the reader understand that the spirit world 
is a real world or sphere, and is a part and parcel or 
continuation of our world, even the trees and fruit, 
rivers and lakes, etc., only they are in an imponderable 
condition where the spirit of matter is still working 
out higher and grander unfoldment through higher- 
stages of this object life, but constantly moving on- 
ward to the unknown home of the soul. 

While I call the spirit sphere imponderable, I use 
the word in our worldly or chemical sense ; for while 
it is invisible to the undeveloped human eye, it has in 
many well-authenticated cases been clearly proven 
that clairvoyance, slate- writing, mesmerism, material- 
ization, the most convincing of all the phenomena, are 
established facts, and, as I said in the first part of this 
book, I have had several phases of these phenomena in 
my own room with not a soul present but myself. 



(41 ) 



CHAPTEE V. 

DEVELOPMENT OF A MEDIUM. 

Spirit Hypnotism. 

Those spirits who have lately passed from earth 
life have just entered the lower sphere or condition of 
the spirit; hence their magnetism or attraction 
reaches the nearest to us of the earth. By sitting, say, 
every third or fourth day, in a semi-darkened room (a 
cabinet is better), and, by practice, learning to keep 
yourself in as negative a condition as possible, you 
thereby raise the quality of your magnetism. Here 
understand, by the same ever-present law, that as like 
attracts like in the object life, such as apple to apple, 
rose to rose, etc. ; here steps in a more pronounced 
condition, — good to good, bad to bad, etc. This will 
be more readily understood when you consider that on 
the spirit side is found the lowest spirit magnetic 
aura which links the ponderable with the imponder- 
able. 

Here again let the reader understand in beginning 
your search after these mystic truths that just such 
thoughts as are cultivated in your innermost spirit or 



(42 ) 

soul, just such spirits do you attract as your band (or 
battery) on the other side; for as a man thinks so he 
is. Your own common reason will tell you that. 
They, your band of spirit controls, will in like manner, 
by the same law, attract or reflect the voices of intelli- 
gences next in degree above them. Therefore, in be- 
ginning your sittings cultivate the highest aspirations. 

Do not by any means let the idea run away with you 
that the spirits will make you one particle better. 
You must live your own life and know that you must 
go to knowledge, for knowledge will not come to you, 
either here or in the spirit world. The development 
of this sixth sense does not add materially to your 
knowledge, such as telling fortunes and such non- 
sense; but it merely acts as a sort of illumination 
or quickening of your ordinary senses, and it also is 
a kind of king over one or all of your five senses for a 
short time, generally from one to two hours, such as 
wholly or partial enhancement, etc. 

As a further evidence of like to like, go to four me- 
diums, and get a communication, if possible, on the 
same business matter. You will find three times out 
of four that the answers, which may be correct, are 
nevertheless all tinctured with the style and charac- 
teristics of the medium, or sensitive. Not but what 
the medium is perfectly honest, for I have given them 
questions which I had every reason in the world to be- 
lieve they did not know, either the question or the an- 



(43 ) 

swer; yet they were answered correctly. But had I 
asked the medium some such question as an 
ordinary friend would ask while in a normal 
condition, the answer would be in their own 
personal phraseology. Therefore, always keep one 
thing in mind when interviewing the spirits through 
any medium's forces, — that the tone of the light which 
you receive in the room is always depending on the 
color of the glass (medium) through which it is 
passed. Always use your own judgment, and weigh 
carefully any communication that you may receive, 
for strange spirits can and do come and represent 
themselves as your own friends, and it is almost im- 
possible for you to tell the difference. My spirit band 
has frequently cautioned me on this point. This 
false personation is to-day the most deplorable fact 
that the investigator has to contend with, and what 
makes this fact still more unfortunate is, there are 
always to be found among the ranks of spiritualists 
many weak-minded and foolish people, as in every 
other walk of life, ever ready to swallow anything 
that may be told them, provided they think it comes 
from a spirit. This is all caused from such people 
being too ignorant to look below the surface of the 
mere mechanical or chemical phenomena, and so being 
unable to separate the dross from the pure metal. 



(44) 



SPIRIT HYPNOTISM. 



Spirit mediums are often used by their band to in- 
fluence, or, in a manner, to hypnotize, a person into 
giving them (the mediums) money, jewels, and other 
property, sometimes leading the sitter to believe that 
they are giving to the spirits; and yet the mediums, 
in a large measure, may not be to blame. The me- 
dium, being the battery on this side and their spirit 
band the battery on the other side, brings the two 
batteries into direct harmony. 

Now, while mediums are in their normal condition 
they are like any one else. They see a fine ring on 
your finger or a beautiful jewel in your necktie, and 
the medium, being human, in her soul thinks : " How 
I wish that were mine," and, from day to day it grows 
on her mind; then, when she goes under the control 
of her band, they (the band) take on that wish or con- 
dition and voice the mind of the medium to the sitter, 
often personating your friends and telling you that it 
will benefit you in many ways if you will give it to 
them (through the medium, of course), making you 
all sorts of absurd promises to gain their ends, — and 
they have a very winsome way oftentimes in doing it, 
more especially if the sitter should be more or less a 
negative to hypnotism, which is only a branch law of 
spirit control. Witness the case of Lawyer Marsh and 
Madame Des De Bar, of New York; Mrs. Lemond and 



(45 ) 

Mary Smith, of Alameda, Cal. ; Mrs. Martin, of Oak- 
land, Cal., and many others. This should convince you 
that while a man may be perfectly clear and level- 
headed in ordinary business matters, these occult laws 
must be handled with a cool and careful judgment. 

I will recite a case of my own of a medium with 
whom I was well acquainted. While she was en- 
tranced ( and it was no sham entrancement, for it was 
during a materializing seance) the medium's control 
begged me to buy her medium a fine ring she had seen 
in a showcase. I told her no, that I had no money to 
waste on rings. She kept up her importunities for 
two or three days, and when she found that I was not 
to be gulled in that way she begged me not to mention 
the matter to her medium when she came out of her 
trance. Now, while I have no doubt that the desire 
to possess the ring was on the medium's mind, nothing 
could have induced her to even hint of such a thing to 
me. 

Again, these spirit bands will play on a weak mind 
for years to work them up to giving and willing prop- 
erty to their mediums. Ask any medium's control, 
and they will tell you that they are more attached to 
their medium than a mother is to her own child and 
think more of her, and the medium will give you the 
same answer as regards her affection for her band. 
How could it possibly be otherwise? And yet medi- 
ums often have disagreements with their bands, and 



(46) 

refuse to be governed by them at all times in local mat- 
ters. Such mediums, however, who have done so and 
with whom I have conversed on the matter have 
always said that they were sorry for it afterwards, as 
time proved in the end that their band was right. 

Grant me your patience for one or two more in- 
stances on the above facts of the media and their bands 
being almost as inseparable as one thought and one 
mind. On one occasion, while pursuing my investiga- 
tions through the mediumship of Mrs. Helen Fair- 
child, Forest Queen, her Indian control (and she was 
almost a perfect control), said to me: "Mr. Foster, 
don't they have lots of pretty things at the big store 
on the corner? " meaning O'Brien's large dry-goods 
store on the corner of Market and McAllister Streets, 
San Francisco. " I often try to influence my medium 
to go there just to see the things. Don't you know, 
yesterday we were in there, and I made her buy two 
or three yards of beautiful red silk, and when she came 
home and opened her packages and saw it she did not 
know what in the world she bought it for." " Why," 
I asked Queen, " cannot you go there by yourself and 
enjoy the sights? " She answered, " No, not without 
my medium's eyes to see with, the same as I have to 
have her mouth to talk with. Don't you know, when 
I was eating the candy you gave me with my medium's 
mouth, that you smelled its flavor on your Sylvia's 
breath while she was talking to you? " I answered, 



(47) 

" Yes." " Well, it is just the same, we could not do 
anything without our medium's organism for a bat- 
tery." 

Again Ptolemy Philadelphus, my guide, in some of 
his instructions to me told me I must learn to separate 
their ( my band's ) thoughts from mine whenever I got 
impressions from them, for, as I got the flavor of the 
candy the control was eating from the breath of spirit 
Sylvia, who was at that time conversing with me in 
full form materialization while the medium under 
control of Forest Queen was sitting in full view in the 
further corner of the room, just so would I become a 
part of their thoughts and they a part of mine. 

At another time I wrote some eight or ten questions 
on a long strip of paper, and folded and sealed it care- 
fully. Some of the questions I intended as test ques- 
tions ; i. e. directed to friends not dead. Other ques- 
tions were on a matter of patent papers which would 
lead the spirits to believe that the Patent Office had 
not yet decided on them, but of which I knew the con- 
trary. This was through the mediumship of Dr. 
Mansfield, better known as " The Spirit Postmaster." 
This sealed paper never left my sight. He laid the pel- 
let on the table before him and commenced to tap it 
with his finger, at the same time writing the answer. 
Well, it proved to me one thing that I was fishing for, 
namely, the spirit force or sixth sense in Mansfield en- 
abled him to read the writing by a sort of clairvoy- 



(48) 

ance, but he or a personating control wrote the 
answer, as in every case the trap caught, which shows 
the necessity of being very careful in your investiga- 
tions. 

And now for one other case — the opposite. I wrote 
on a piece of paper five different questions to five dif- 
ferent spirit friends, among them my father, whose 
signature I know well. This was in Alameda. I took 
them, folded lightly, to Fred Evans in San Francisco. 
I had them in my vest-pocket. I asked him if he could 
get me an answer, and he replied that he would try. 
He placed five clean slates on the table in the full light 
of day, two of them being double. I laid the pellet on 
the double slates and placed my fingers on it and kept 
them there. In about fifteen minutes raps came signi- 
fying that they were done. I picked up the pellet and 
placed it back in my pocket, Mr. Evans never once 
having touched it. Each answer was correct and 
signed by the one to whom it was addressed. 



WHY DO WE GET THE BEST RESULTS FROM A DARK ROOM 

IN SITTING FOR SPIRIT PHENOMENA, OR WHY 

IS IT NECESSARY FOR A DARK ROOM? 

When a person wishes to find out if he possesses 
those qualifications requisite for spirit communica- 
tions, it is at first advisable to use a darkened room, 
for the following reasons: You, my friend, found by 



(49 ) 

experience that you could place yourself in a much 
more negative condition in the dark, and you soon 
learned that the least ray of light would completely 
upset you. 

We think that this question can be best answered by 
calling your attention to a number of well-recognized 
facts. By way of an illustration, let any one who 
wishes to test this matter try sitting in a fully lighted 
room at a time when he wishes to cogitate or hold com- 
munion with his innermost sense, soul, or being, on 
some very important subject, when it is desirable to 
concentrate his thoughts. Try this for about fifteen 
minutes and note the result; then darken the room 
and try again, and you will find that in the dark your 
mind or thoughts will flow with far more ease and 
rapidity. 

It is also a well-known fact, not only with the hu- 
man but also with the brute, that when brought low 
with a wound or sickness, they seek a dark place to 
repose. Why do you always tone down the light in a 
sick-chamber? If you should neglect it, how quickly 
the patient will request it. Take the chicken in the 
shell, or the corn on the cob as the grains begin to form 
and ripen, and note the complete exclusion of light 
that Nature has provided. Or take a seed under cover 
of the earth, the rose-bud, the womb, or in fact take 
ninety per cent, of all Nature, and does she not pro- 
vide a dark chamber to materialize, produce, or repro- 



( 50 ) 

duce an object, when, we may say, she rearranges her 
atomic substance? 

In your investigation of these phenomena yon must 
first accept the facts as they present themselves to 
you ; but it does not follow that you must cease your 
investigation at this point for fear you may be en- 
croaching on the omniscience — with our apology to 
Mr. Davidson for differing with him. 

Light is composed of several substances. Hence we 
call it matter, and as physically it is the most pene- 
trating matter at present known to man (in fact it is 
so infinitely subdivided that man loses sight of it as it 
passes from the ponderable to what we may almost 
call the imponderable), how insinuating this fluid is 
or how impossible the task of excluding it completely 
from a chamber can be comprehended when you con- 
sider the vast amount of labor that has been expended 
upon it in the city of Washington by one of the Gov- 
ernment officials in his fruitless endeavor to build an 
absolutely dark room. 

This being one of the phenomenal facts that present 
themselves for your consideration, then the question 
will arise : Are there not many other substances in ex- 
istence which may be equally as sensitive, if not far 
more so, that are as yet unknown to man; such as 
magnetism, electricity, thought, etc? 

Your observation of effect proves to you that be- 
yond a doubt these substances can be and are subdi- 



(51 ) 

Added to a point beyond the comprehension of man; 
and if this be the case, would not your own common 
sense teach you that they could best operate on the 
ponderable or physical matter through the imponder- 
able by way of this so-called darkness, in precisely 
the same way that the germ of reproduction operates ; 
i. e. the light, being substance and antagonistic to cer- 
tain other substances, acts as an obstruction to a 
union or amalgamation of said substance with the 
matter of a body while in process of organizing. 

As you further find that it is not always necessary 
for the light to be excluded in the case of a reproduc- 
tion ( i. e. the ten per cent. ) , neither is it always neces- 
sary for it to be excluded in all spirit phenomena. 

One of the finest illustrations we can offer you on 
the disintegrating effect of light on other matter is to 
call your attention to photography, the fading or dis- 
integration of color, snow-blindness, etc. These ex- 
planations, we are aware, will be received by an 
unprejudiced philosopher as both possible and prob- 
able. He seeks only for a knowledge of the cause of an 
effect and pays no attention to the ravings of blind 
fanaticism or the dogmatic teachings of the credulist. 
You do not find such well-balanced minds as Wallace, 
Crooker, Flammarion, Reichenbach, Edmons, Varley, 
Barrett, Wagner, and others too numerous to men- 
tion, carrying on their investigations of these and 
other natural phenomena by asking why this or that 



(52) 

phenomenon is in the dark or in the light, and then 
jumping to the conclusion that because an ear of corn 
will not mature in the light without the husk, it must 
be a, fraud. But they first satisfy themselves if the 
phenomenon is an existing physical fact; then they, 
as free philosophers, seek to find out how far physical 
law can be applied to arrive at a solution of the cause, 
and, if they fail to arrive at a natural solution, they 
are honest and unprejudiced enough to accept the phe- 
nomena as they present themselves, by admitting that 
the solution is beyond their present comprehension, 
but that it is not improbable that they may be better 
understood as man develops other knowledge in the 
not distant future as the wheel of evolution rolls 
slowly onward. 

A large majority of those who claim to be investi- 
gators of the truth of these and other phenomena, not 
being sufficiently well-informed as to the way of ap- 
plying even physical science in a philosophical man- 
ner, are liable to drop into the error of thinking that 
science should have the right to demand that any and 
all phenomenal truths should present themselves for 
consideration in any manner that these would-be 
scientists saw fit to demand. 

In refutation of this, allow us to ask this class of 
investigators if they would deny the existence of life 
because it chooses to make its first appearance in the 
dark. Man, in seeking knowledge of Nature, must go 



( 53 ) 

to Nature and inquire of her; and remember, that 
Nature is not seeking of you, but you of her, and she 
will give you only such truths as you are capable of 
digesting. Therefore, if you should fail to compre- 
hend her, it is not because she does not lay an abun- 
dance at your feet, but because you cannot pick it up. 
Why, my friend, it is the constant and ceaseless de 
sire of man to reach after that which he does not pos- 
sess that forms one of the spokes of the wheel of 
evolution, Excelsior. 



(54) 



CHAPTER VI. 

THE MYSTIC CIRCLE. 

Destiny. 

We will now endeavor to convey to the mind of the 
reader what it is we mean by the term "Mystic Circle." 
It is that vast and inconceivable amount of truth that 
is in existence, not alone in the earth life, but perme- 
ating all space, which yet remains to be known and 
comprehended by the people of the earth. For every 
one thing or truth which you know there are yet more 
than a million of truths of which mankind is in entire 
ignorance. Now, my friend and student, stop right 
here and ponder well on the above assertion in all its 
various phases, and settle this point in your mind, 
which we will take for granted is in the affirmative. 
Now we find your mind in a condition to proceed. 

The physical as well as the occult truth is and has 
its existence as a scientific fact in the past, present, 
and future, without regard to words or a language, 
and has nothing whatever to do with names of any 
kind, (please to bear this in mind) ; for all truth was, 
is, and will be self-existent long before words were 



(55 ) 

invented ; in fact, words and language, like time, are 
only man-made conveniences to partially convey One 
man's knowledge or meaning to another of what he 
knows ; and, as he cannot convey to another informa- 
tion of such truths as he does not know (for you must 
know it before you can coin a word to convey it to an- 
other), then you will see that all of those millions of 
truths yet remaining undiscovered in the vast realm 
of eternity by the people of earth can only be called 
the Mystic Circle, a circle without a center or a cir- 
cumference. Truly this is mystic. 

And now, my friend, if it should be your de- 
sire to become a member of this Brotherhood of the 
Mystic Circle, its doors are at all times and forever 
open to those who would partake of the feast; for 
know ye, all who enter its portal are received with the 
open arms of Love, Truth, and Charity, without re- 
gard to race, creed or condition, where Truth alone 
prevails. 

In this school was Socrates, Buddha, Christ, and 
many other of earth's sensitives, or mediums, devel- 
oped and feasted on the good things only to be found 
on the tables, which are many and varied, of the Mys- 
tic Temple of the Brotherhood. And while you will 
find the doors at all times wide open, there you will 
also find your (so-called) guardian angel standing at 
the threshold with open arms, ready to receive and 
conduct you through your initiation, teaching and ex- 



( 56 ) 

plaining to you step by step, as you yourself shall 
desire to progress, the many mysteries of the temple 
as you advance. 

We are not now speaking of your soul-passage after 
the so-called death of the physical body, but have 
reference to the present moment of your life. You 
have been told of old, " Knock and it shall be opened 
to you, seek and ye shall find." This is a literal truth ; 
you must have an inner soul desire for these mystic 
truths, — not from mere curiosity, but that you may 
become more illuminated or spiritualized, and you 
must live up to and absolutely put into your daily life 
the practice of these truths ; for know ye, we will give 
unto you one piece of silver; now go ye your way a 
free and independent soul, and after a time return to 
us that piece of silver and tell us what use you made 
of it, for until you have learned the use of that which 
we have given you we cannot advance you any further, 
— i. e. you cannot learn to write until you have learned 
to spell ; you must creep before you walk. 

You will find as you advance in this circle that the 
most wonderful knowledge will be given unto you, and 
in the queerest manner, — so remarkable and yet so 
comprehensible that you will frequently find yourself 
exclaiming, " Of a truth, this is mystic." And the 
most beautiful part of it is that you seem to know 
absolutely beyond all doubt that it is a fact, and one 
of the queer or mystic parts of it is that you cannot 



( 57 ) 

give this knowledge to any who have not progressed 
themselves that far into the mystic circle. 

Note the wisdom of the master of this circle right 
here, in that it is incumbent upon every individual 
soul to hew out its own end ; see how beautifully the 
lines come in : — 

" There 's a destiny that shapes our ends, 
Rough-hew them how we will." 

By destiny here is meant the guardian angel or 
spirit familiar who stands at the threshold of that 
mystic temple to assist you in your honest ( ?) delving 
after knowledge; and when you come to understand 
that you are at this moment standing and knocking at 
that door, with your dearest spirit friend that you 
ever had standing at your very shoulder trying, oh so 
hard, to turn your innermost thoughts in a spiritual 
direction, then, and then only, will you begin to com- 
prehend the A B C of our Brotherhood. 

As it is our object in writing this book to give in- 
structions or information regarding such facts as we 
have been able to gather we will refrain as much as 
possible from moralizing, and try to confine our re- 
marks as closely to the facts as a clear comprehension 
of the subject will admit of and leave to the student 
the privilege of spreading it over a larger space. 



(58 ) 



CHAPTER VII. 

SENSITIZED, PROGRESSED OR SPIRIT ETHER. 

Spirit Return — Sympathetic Attraction. 

After I had, by many and various investigations, 
fully satisfied myself of the truth of materialization, 
clairvoyance, etc., there took possession of me an un- 
conquerable desire to know the law or facts in detail 
as to how these were accomplished, and to that end I 
have bent and am now bending all my intelligence. 

When sitting in my cabinet as negative as I could, 
I still found my thoughts would be inclined to drift ; 
then I would steer them toward the great question, 
How in the name of God was it done? In the course 
of five or six months I began to realize that my 
thoughts were drifting into strange but beautiful and 
logical realms ; I was shown, given, or got knowledge 
of practical facts, but how I got it, from whence it 
came, by whom delivered, or in what manner, is be- 
yond my ability to tell. Now, some wiseacres will tell 
you it was impressions, while others will say it was 
inspiration, and yet again we will be told it was a 
super-illumination of the brain, or perhaps soul. 1 



( 59 ) 

will say it was a little of all of them, and will express 
it thus : 

I saw that around the earth body there was a large 
imponderable body of electro-magnetic ether, extend- 
ing around and about the earth in an outward direc- 
tion for many thousands of miles, but belonging to 
the earth only. Upon examination, I found that this 
ether was composed of atoms that had at one time 
been a part of the earth matter, but, by a law of con- 
tinuous progression or advancement, after they had 
reached the highest state of unfoldment that the earth 
could furnish them, that they then left the ponderable 
earth, in something of the same manner that the ripe 
apple leaves the tree, and that right there our law of 
gravitation had no longer a control over them, but that 
they still owed allegiance to the law of attraction. 

I also found that in passing outward from the sur- 
face of the earth that the further I went the less the 
attraction, the less dense but the more sensitive these 
atoms became; in fact, the moment I entered within 
the domain (let us call it) of the spirit, I found a sen- 
sitized field so delicate that it entirely passed all hu- 
man comprehension. I found that this ether could 
and did retain and record all happenings of the earth 
even to your very thoughts, something similar to Edi- 
son's audiphone. 

I saw that on or in this field of ether (spirit world) 
all things that were or ever had been on the earth 



(60 ) 

plane were here reproduced, but far, far more beauti- 
ful and real; such people, flowers, landscapes, birds, 
fruit, etc., that I know of no words that can possibly 
convey to you even a partial idea of their magnifi- 
cence. Just imagine for a moment the most perfect 
human form clothed in garments composed of the 
prisms of the rainbow, moving to and fro, up and 
down, without any apparent effort of their own. I 
no longer wonder that those favored mortals who have 
been permitted to visit this mystic circle should so 
long for the change called death ; for death indeed is 
but a grand victory of the imponderable over the pon- 
derable. 

In order that you may in a measure comprehend 
something of the fineness or subdivision of this ether 
(for the greater the division of atomic life the more 
sensitive it becomes), I will say that I found that the 
people of this super-sphere did not use or require a 
language. You have, as it were, but to think or will 
what you wish to say and the other understands you, 
so very sensitive is this ether in which all live and have 
their being. There are spirits who make this and other 
spirit laws a deep and patient study, spending cen- 
turies of devotion to the subject, where you of the 
earth spend days of your time. All spirits do not un- 
derstand these laws of spirit return or how to raise or 
develop the mortal medium's organism up to that sen- 
sitive condition that they (the spirits) may use them. 



( 61 ) 

This law is purely a chemical law on the spirit side of 
life, as well as on the earth plane. 

Now, my friend, we will again ask you to stop and 
consider, how many of you of the earth life are quali- 
fied to go into a laboratory and fully analyze the dif- 
ferent matters (atom life)? Why, not one in a 
million ! How many sons of earth are organized as a 
Mozart, a Webster, or an Edison, etc? Not one in ten 
million ! 

The spirits on our side of life find many obstacles in 
our path which only time and great patience can re- 
move ; for nearly all spirit intercourse with the people 
of earth depends largely on the moral or spiritual ad- 
vancement of the people of the earth ; as you become 
more lovable, kind, and charitable, you raise the sen- 
sibilities of the ether which you throw off, which al- 
lows us ( the spirits) to draw nearer unto you and 
more properly control your thoughts. 

I also found in the phenomena of painting in oil 
and drawing or writing on slates that the spirits did 
not actually consume any of the pigment of the paint 
or pencil, but that they drew from these articles that 
part of the matter that had reached its highest enfold- 
ment; i. e. the spiritualized or imponderable part 
without any apparent wasting away of the earthly 
atom. To satisfy yourselves of the truth of this, go to 
a good slate- writing medium and note the size of the 
small crumb of pencil he places between the slates; 



( 62 ) 

then, after you open the slates and find both sides of 
them fully covered with writing, again note the size of 
the crumb of pencil, and you will find that it has not 
diminished a particle. 



SYMPATHETIC ATTRACTION. 

(Or no ponderable matter is real.) 

All objective matter is built up by sympathetic at- 
traction of the ultimate atoms of their respective 
kinds. These atoms in their single state are so incon- 
ceivably small as to take on something of the nature of 
an iniluence, and are able to pass through other so- 
called solid matter, — for the only solid matter is the 
single infinite atom, the single ultimate atom being- 
composed of many infinite atoms. 

Here let me again explain what is meant by an ulti- 
mate atom. It is matter divided down to the smallest 
point of human comprehension; such as an atom of 
magnetism, electricity, sunlight, thought, color, etc. 

As all object matter is ceaselessly taking on and 
throwing off matter in the atomic form, then it follows 
that objective matter is constantly changing; there- 
fore, it is always in motion. Then it is never, for the 
smallest fraction of time, the same; hence it has no 
real existence as one or the same object at any one 
point in time. Take, for an instance, the apple just 



(.63 ) 

after the blossom has left the pod, then take the full 
ripe apple as it falls from the tree. Did the apple 
change in the fraction of a second, and, if not, at what 
comprehensive point in time did it change from a pod 
to a full ripe apple? All of the atoms that entered into 
the growing fruit during its progress did not remain 
with the fruit by a very large percentage, but passed 
off, leaving in their passage a portion of the ultimates 
with the growing apple. As a positive knowledge of 
this truth, apply your sense of smell at any stage of its 
growth. Is not the fragrance matter being cast off 
by the fruit? Physical science has long since acknowl- 
edged that all known so-called solids are composed of 
spherical -shaped atoms having a space between them. 
How, then, can they be solid? 

And now your attention, please. How about the 
single infinite atom? Is not that a solid, and there- 
fore real, as it cannot change, being infinite and eter- 
nal? And, as we cannot see it, then only that which 
we do not see is real. 



(64) 



CHAPTER VIII. 

PONDERABLE AND IMPONDERABLE, OR OBJECT BODY, SPIRIT 
BODY AND SOUL. 

In order to convey our idea to the reader of the 
truth of matter in the ponderable and imponderable 
state and its relation to life or soul, we will have to 
begin at a point just previous to human and also spirit 
comprehension, which is the ultimate atom. All of 
your scientists agree that all matter, whether in a 
gaseous or solid state, even including light, heat, etc., 
is composed of atoms supposed to be in a spherical 
shape and so small as to be beyond human compre- 
hension; hence the necessity of our beginning our 
explanation at or a little previous to human compre- 
hension, — i. e. life and the atom. 

If the atom is so small that even the spirits cannot 
see or comprehend it, then how much more incompre- 
hensible would be and is the life force or principle that 
is within the single atom? This life we will designate 
as God or over-soul, as we know that it permeates and 
flows through and through all matter and all space, 
and is superior to and governs all things whatsoever; 



(65) 

and beyond this we, the spirits, cannot advise you, but 
will begin at this point by saying that the atoms which 
fill all space in the original single atom state of atom 
life are imponderable to the spirit as well as the mor- 
tal. It is only when two or more atoms come together 
by mutual attraction, such as rose to rose, color to 
color, etc., that they become visible to the advanced 
spirits, and only then to a very limited extent; and it 
is by studying this law of accumulative atoms that we 
find the law of spirit communication. These atoms 
that we have just spoken of are not the atoms that 
compose the spirit world, but are the atoms of which 
you and your world are composed ; and in this condi- 
tion, as a world, they have taken on their second 
change, — for they have to pass through the various 
laws of the earth evolution and gradually rise from 
cycle to cycle in their earth condition until the earth 
can no longer furnish them any more advancement or 
unfoldment, when then, by this wonderful law of life, 
they take on a higher condition of spirit and become 
the component part of that which goes to produce the 
spirit and spirit world. 

Now, in order that the student may more readily 
understand us, we will first run down the line of 
known facts again. When two or more atoms come 
together they form objective life ; this again produces 
a gaseous body, and this produces a fluid body, caused 
by pressure and chemical changes; this produces the 



(66 ) 

rock life. Next we have vegetable life, next animal 
life, next spirit life, and then soul life, which is as far 
as we can comprehend. Now, in the first stage of the 
world's evolution all was in a rank and crude condi- 
tion. For the purpose of a clearer understanding, let 
us take the vegetable life of the primeval age and com- 
pare it with the present advanced stage of vegetation, 
your almost perfect fruit and flowers ; all this was not 
wrought in a day but required vast cycles of time. In 
the fullness of time Mother Earth gave forth her fruits 
to be again disintegrated (not destroyed), and then 
again reproduced one step in advance of the order of 
life unfoldment, and the same order is followed out in 
regards to the rocks and animal life. The rocks were 
crude and unclassified at their first appearance out of 
the seething fires of the liquid cycle, and just so was 
the human family. No one will doubt for a moment the 
advanced condition of man to-day over the primeval 
man. And what has caused this change? Why, as man 
reached his three-score years and ten (the so-called 
Biblical limit of the average human life), his body be- 
ing purely physical or ponderable, reaches its earth 
limit as an object life; but in its conception as an ob- 
ject it also takes on an undeveloped spirit body, and 
the purpose of this physical life is to furnish a condi- 
tion for the spirit to unfold, preparatory to its second 
change or advent into yet another condition. 

Now, understand that the spirit is a body composed 



( 67 ) 

of atoms, similar to the earth or physical body, with 
the difference that it is imponderable, having no 
longer any use for a ponderable body. The spirit body, 
while it is a tenant of the earth body, is at the same 
time the possessor of a soul or life principle ; at first, 
as in a new-born infant, so delicate as to be hardly dis- 
cernible. Now, as the physical body fosters the spirit 
and is responsible for a perfect piece of work, so is 
the spirit again responsible for a good soul, and this 
order applies to matter of whatsoever nature, the 
primeval stage merely preparing the way for the ad- 
vanced change; round and round, onward and still 
onward, until it passes beyond not only human but 
spirit comprehension. 

Now, my friend, you see nothing here irrational, but 
simply a straight, onward course of logical deduction 
from cause to effect. Now, please compare the above 
assertion with the old mythological and ignorant 
teachings of a still more unlearned and self-aggrandiz- 
ing teacher, such as nothing containing nothing out of 
which came a personal God. This God was not cre- 
ated, Oh, no ! But after that, what? Why, everything 
else was created out of nothing. Does not your own 
enlightenment in this present age, backed by all the 
wise teachers of to-day, go to prove beyond all doubt 
that nothing whatever can be destroyed, cease to be, or 
be reduced to nothing? Then, if it cannot be reduced 
to nothing, it follows, by a natural course of reason- 



( 68 ) 

ing, that it never came from nothing but the atom 
which fills all known space; merely change, change, 
change, from one condition or form of life to still an- 
other and higher condition of life, on and on and on 
until all passes beyond human comprehension into the 
vast unknown, a space so large as to pass all human 
understanding and every minute part of said space 
filled exactly full, without crowding, with atom life, so 
small that they, on their part, pass all comprehension. 
Therefore, as all space is exactly filled with atoms, you 
will readily see that there could not possibly be any 
such thing as a vacuum, or a space containing not any- 
thing; and as all atoms have atom life, and life is 
God, or the soul of things (for it is only a name),* 
then you can very clearly see how it is not only possi- 
ble but a logical fact that God is everywhere. 

STRANGE GODS. 

Whenever a man or a set of men claim a knowledge 
of facts previous to or beyond the point of human com- 
prehension, that man is either a knave or a fool and 
would have you to worship strange gods. Far more 
will it profit the children of earth to confine their wor- 
ship within the limit of their understanding, giving 
preference at all times to that which they know over 
that which they believe. 



*Life is only an effect or expression of three entities, which are Thought, 
Force, and Substance. (See Chapter 38.) 



(69) 



CHAPTER IX. 

(We do not claim this as impressional. ) 

HEALING BY THE ULTIMATE ATOM. 

After having practiced and experimented with the 
forces used in healing, for something like three years, 
testing it by every known principle at my command, 
and being mindful of the facts of the penetrating prop- 
erties of the refined or spirit ultimates, I have arrived 
at the following deductions : — 

That by sitting at regular intervals, as directed in 
a former chapter, so as to develop such forces as your 
individual organism is endowed with, you raise the 
quality of your earth condition sufficiently to allow 
the spirit band that you thereby attract to you, to pass 
the atom of health, or pure atoms, of life-giving im- 
ponderable matter, through your physical organism 
into the organism of the one afflicted. Sometimes it 
happens that the one afflicted stands very low in spiri- 
tual development of his or her organism ; and, in that 
case, you may not always be successful. 

I do not wish to be understood as meaning that the 
one who is spiritually undeveloped is morally what 



(70) 

the creedal world calls a bad person, but that he has 
never given these occult or psychological laws a suffi- 
cient investigation, so as to be able to place himself in 
a negative or receptive condition to the healer or to 
his band. 

In applying these psychological laws, one who has 
not delved deeply below the surface knowledge of your 
creeds and false roads to truth, unless he is very care- 
ful, is apt to weigh the natural truth with a false pair 
of scales, and hence to arrive at false deductions ; and 
while I acknowledge my inability to clearly convey to 
you a full explanation of the modus operandi of heal- 
ing, — more from the want of a word or of words at the 
proper place, — yet I will do the best I can. 

This whole occult field is so vast, and so very much 
remains for the student to know and comprehend, and 
the still greater misfortune that the study of psychol- 
ogy has only within the last ten years (this is 1897) be- 
come sufficiently recognized by your professors of 
learning as to allow it a chair of special study in your 
universities, that I hope the reader of this little book 
will be charitable enough with me to remember that 
I am only one of the pioneers, w T ith no fine library on 
occultism to refresh my memory, but that I must of 
necessity plunge right ahead into the briars and un- 
derwood and hew a path, rough and crude though it 
be, for those who may dare to follow my lead, sincerely 
hoping that they may find sufficient inducements, as 



(71 ) 

they progress along the road, to plant and cultivate 
such rare and beautiful flowers of truth along the way 
that they, in their turn, may be blessed by the next 
generation in evolution for daring to forever anni- 
hilate the demon Drug from the human family. 

When I first began to heal, I placed my right hand 
on the spot where the most pain was, and the left hand 
just opposite. I alway prefer the bare flesh, but there 
were times when circumstances required a cloth of 
some kind, and I then found the results the same, or 
nearly so. I would sometimes have to give five or six 
extra treatments. My hands would feel to the patient 
as if they were covered with dry mustard ; that is, a 
slight pricking or burning sensation, while at the same 
time the back of my hand would be very cold. I would 
keep my hands on the patient about ten minutes, or 
sometimes twenty minutes. There seemed a sort of 
premonition or instinct which warned me when to 
take them off ; and very often I would feel the influence 
cease to flow, which at first— that is, the first year — 
was a kind of burning sensation in my hands. 

At the end of the first year I noticed a radical 
change. When I put my hands on a person, in less 
than a minute there would generate a queer buzzing, 
whirling, or vibratory motion in my right breast. This 
would flow down my right arm and give off, through 
my hand and fingers, a vibration of about five hundred 
to one thousand beats per minute; at the same time 



( 72 ) 

the back of my hands being very cold, while the palms 
of the hand would sometimes burn the patients so bad- 
ly that they could not stand it. This was not an imagi- 
nary feeling, for the patients felt the vibration as 
well as I ; hence the false deductions of some, calling 
it magnetism. But let me say to you, my friend, those 
who call it magnetism, or electricity, have no knowl- 
edge of facts whatever to so assert, but do so from the 
old habit of the human race, of giving it a name at all 
hazards, for fear that some one will think them igno- 
rant if they do not profess to know all about it. And 
thus again is planted the seed of error. 

How can any one but the healer possibly feel these 
psycho-physical forces, and they only as they develop 
them? for not only the heat, cold, and vibratory mo- 
tion does the healer feel, but that mystic feeling that 
cannot be described in words. 

On one occasion, when I was treating a patient for 
pleurisy, I placed my hand over the bowels. In a few 
minutes, we both began to smell tallow very strong, 
when I began to stroke the bowels lightly before re- 
moving my hands, — which I always do for two or three 
minutes, — I found the patient was covered with some- 
thing like tallow under my hand. Question : Where 
did it come from? I answer truthfully: I do not 
know. 

At another time, I have had a lotion come under my 
hand, which seemed half water and half oil, in such 



( 73 ) 

quantity as to drip off on the floor. This could not 
have been magnetism, inmd-cure, or Christian Science. 

The object in stroking the patient just before you 
remove your hands is to break the condition between 
the patient and the healer. Then you should immedi- 
ately place your (the healer's) hands in cold water for 
a couple of minutes. This seems to absorb the disease 
from the healer ; for, by experimenting, I found that 
whenever I neglected to put my hands in cold water, 
I was sure to feel the effect of the ailment. 

At the beginning of the third year, another change 
in treating came over me; i. e. when I placed my 
hands on the patient, not only the trembling began, 
but some internal force would try to make me talk, 
although they have not as yet succeeded in articulat- 
ing any plain words. This is explained by the spirit 
of old Massasoit (an Indian who has been with me for 
eight years) on the ground that he cannot yet speak 
English, but is learning it very fast.* 

I will now give you an article on Healing which I 
wrote about two years ago, as I think it will throw 
some light on the subject. 

HEALING BY THE LAYING ON OF HANDS^ 

Without the inevitable accompaniment of our faith, 
in our particular creed, did the business. Eighty-five 
cured out of the first one hundred trials, and done 



*But this I doubt.— C. H, F. 



(74) 

without faith, prayer, Christian Science, concentra- 
tion of mind, magnetism, or massage treatment. But 
done by a law of nature as old as the human race, 
and which embraces all of the above claims in such 
proportion to the whole truth, as six drops of water 
does to the mighty ocean. 

About one year ago (now three years) I developed 
this same wonderful power, and I concluded to investi- 
gate it as carefully as my limited intelligence would 
allow. I decided to treat every case just as it came 
along, keeping a record of each case, and at the same 
time try to keep my mind as free from creedal influ- 
ence or a priori opinion as I possibly could, until I 
had treated one hundred cases free of charge, testing 
and experimenting as I went along. 

The result is, I found, that to cure people of pain 
and disease by simply laying my hands on them is a 
demonstrated fact. And so far as my experiments 
have gone (i. e. eighty- five per cent, cured), I find that 
neither Christian Science, faith, mind, magnetism, or 
massage have anything whatever to do with it. 

As an illustration, people have come to me suffering 
from pain or disease and said they did not have any 
faith or belief in Christian Science, mind-cure, etc. 
My invariable answer to such people has been : " I do 
not care what you believe. When I put my hands on 
you and the pain leaves, it will be a matter of knowl- 
edge and not belief" 



(75 ) 

And I also find that very many people have this 
same latent force within their own organism and 
could develop it to a more or less extent, if they would 
only pursue the proper course, remembering at the 
same time that the poet, artist, inventor — in fact, all 
our geniuses, — have their peculiar forces slumbering 
within them, until brought forth by a proper course 
of development. Hie labor, hoc opus est. 

And right here, many will naturally ask " If this 
power to heal is not mind, magnetism, etc., as claimed 
by many, then what is it? " As to that, I can only an- 
swer : It is a power to be felt by those who possess it, 
but not described, as it is beyond human comprehen- 
sion, and no language has yet been coined by which it 
may be described. And for me to attempt it, would 
only lead to the old error of mind, faith, etc. And 
furthermore, I do not find anything of the miraculous 
or instantaneous cure; but I have cured some in two 
minutes, and as many as twenty in ten minutes, while 
the majority required from ten to sixty days, with a 
gradual gain in health from the first treatment to the 
end; thus showing it to be a natural law, incompre- 
hensible to a very large majority of the denizens of this 
world, I will admit, but nevertheless a truth, as many 
citizens of Alameda, California, can testify. 



(76) 



CHAPTER X. 

A LITTLE GRAIN OF CORN OR THE QUICKENING 
GERM OF LIFE. 

( May 25, 1895. The first of series number 2. ) 

The average physical scientist will tell you that 
nature reproduces in this way : By planting the grain 
in proper moist soil, etc., the germ of life is brought 
to a quickening sense by the heat and moisture, and is 
a purely chemical transaction. Now, let us see if they 
have really gone to the bottom of the subject, or, in 
other words, reached the limit of human comprehen- 
sion. But I will ask, from whence came this (or these) 
extra germs? For at the very moment of its quicken- 
ing, right there is ingrafted the first object life of 
every single grain of corn that will be found on the 
matured ear when it shall have reached its full devel- 
opment. 

It was at this point of knowledge that the ancient 
alchemists, adepts, Mahatmas, and other deep stu- 
dents of Nature's mystic storehouse began to investi- 
gate the hidden or mysterious laws of life. From this 
point they began to trace backwards by a process of 



(77) 

reasoning something after this manner: If life pro- 
duces energy, and energy produces force, and force 
produces motion, and motion produces change, and 
change produces evolution, then does it not follow by 
the same law of deduction that motion produces elec- 
tricity, electricity produces magnetism, and magnet- 
ism produces attraction? Why, yes; of course. Well 
then, what does it attract? Reason teaches us there 
could be no attraction without something to attract. 
Why, by the quickening process of conception, it at- 
tracts that which is nearest or next in the degree of 
progress, which is the single ultimate of life or soul, 
from that life- fluid that is constantly flowing through 
and permeating all matter and all space. 

Then we find that up to this point, i.e. so far as our 
own researches have carried us, all power is derived 
from life. And as we find, after centuries of investiga- 
tion, that human comprehension can go no farther, 
then let us see what other truths we can extract from 
life. 

Now, as all matter, even the little grain of corn, is 
but the expression of life, then it follows that, had the 
life-fluid for some unknown reason failed to be at- 
tracted to the seedling while undergoing the process 
of quickening, then another and far different result 
would be the outcome of heat and moisture, to wit, 
a disintegration of the atom life of that grain of corn, 
said atoms to be again passed through the mills of the 



(78) 

gods, and be again reproduced in some other and 
higher form of expressed life. 

Having reached thus far in our investigation, we 
will take it for granted that as with the vegetable 
line of evolution or progress, so also is it with the 
animal kingdom. We find by looking backward for 
countless ages of time that Mother Earth has evi- 
dently reached the physical limit of her work when 
she produced man, and we are perfectly justified in 
this conclusion from the fact that the next step on- 
ward is the spirit world. Now again, we bring our 
reasoning faculties into play and ask ourselves the 
question : If the spirit which is next above us in degree 
can take a step backwards in such a manner as to 
control a physical earth man, then is there not a law 
by which a physical man can control that life which 
is next below him? That is, Hypnotism? 



(79) 



CHAPTEE XI. 

HYPNOTISM. 

July 1, 1895. — After waiting for a space of two 
months, I am again impressed to continue this work. 

As we find that the earth man is composed of three 
separate and distinct parts, — i.e. the physical body, 
the spirit body and the soul, — then may not these, by 
some law, be temporarily separated, acted upon, or 
influenced in their separate and distinct paths? And 
if so, by what force and in what manner? 

We will reason thus: If we wish to reduce wine 
we would not resort to sand or flesh, but would 
naturally seek a fluid whose atomic life or parts would 
be the nearest in direct sympathy or harmony with 
the wine as our own knowledge of the subject would 
suggest. Now, the spirit man, being a separate and 
distinct part from the physical man, is capable of sep- 
arating itself from the physical body at times, as has 
been abundantly proven on numerous occasions, at 
least to those ancient and modern students who have 
patiently and carefully applied themselves to a fair 
and impartial investigation of the subject matter. 

Right here allow me to add my own testimony. I 



(80) 

have while wide awake seen my spirit body, standing 
fifty feet away, conversing with two other spirits, just 
as plainly as I ever saw my physical body. I could 
not hear what they said, but was perfectly aware that 
it Avas my so-called second self and was particular to 
study it closely for a space of four or five minutes, 
when it passed away. (For the benefit of those who 
might be disposed to treat this assertion with levity, 
I will say that I did not see any snakes around it or 
myself. ) 

Then, it would naturally follow that the law and 
forces to be investigated and applied, for the purpose 
of controlling those of our physical race, must be 
through and by that field in which both parties can 
and do move the nearest in harmony, which is the 
spirit ether, spirit world, or spirit magnetism, just 
as it suits the student's fancy to call it. 

As I have said in a former part of this work, I have 
no time or disposition to correctly select a name or 
classify these laws. Let the student always bear in 
mind that I am only blindly pushing ahead into the 
briars and rocks, trying to bring to light the crude 
truths, in order to break the way for those who may 
choose to follow, hoping that there may be some one 
of those who care to investigate who shall be scholarly 
and enlightened enough to put these truths into a 
more detailed and comprehensive manner before their 
fellow man. 



( 81 ) 

While the spirit part of your physical body can pro- 
ject itself from you to almost any distance by means of 
this spirit ether, it can also, while remaining in your 
body, so control certain properties in this ether as to 
reach the spirit of other bodies that are negative to the 
controlling spirit, and even here, distance appears to 
cut no figure. 

Now, by controlling the negative spirit, that spirit 
again controls the negative body; for the body, in 
this case, is lower in the order of evolution than its 
spirit. To illustrate : I, being the positive, command 
my spirit to take possession or command of John 
Doe's spirit. My spirit then says to John, " You must 
obey my will, John; your hand is made of cork and 
can feel no pairi." Now, John's spirit, being under my 
control, so conveys this impression to his physical 
hand, and it really feels no pain when you pass a 
needle through it. It is by this law or force that I 
have been more or less successful in relieving pain; 
i. e., by a part of this law, for it is subdivided into 
many parts. That you may clearly understand me, 
I will now make a bold assertion : — 



YOU DO NOT SEE WITH YOUR EYES. 

Man does not see with his physical eyes at all; 
neither does he hear with his physical ears, nor does 
he really receive any of his knowledge through his 



(82) 

physical organs of sense; they are merely pieces of 
mechanism belonging to and subject to his spirit. For 
instance, your eye is a window for the soul or life 
fluid, through which the spirit looks and conveys an 
impression to the soul.* This is definitely proven 
by the fact of clairvoyance. I know that I can see, 
feel, hear, taste, and smell just as well when I am in 
one of those sensitive conditions with all of my physi- 
cal senses lying dormant as I can when in a normal 
condition, which is the best proof in the world that 
the spirit of your body is the real man. 

Now, do not jump off the platform at this point and 
reply, " If you put my physical eye out I cannot see," 
but bear in mind one thing, and that is that I am 
speaking now of the psychological law of the Mystic 
Circle, many things of which you may or may not 
know very little about, for you absolutely must de- 
velop these forces before you can clearly understand 
them, I am only calling your attention to those 
known truths in nature which directly connect the 
physical and the spirit of matter by means of this 
spirit ether, which is psychology. 

Again, I now command John's spirit to go on a jour- 
ney of one hundred miles to a certain house, describ- 
ing how he must make the journey, the route, position, 
etc. I order him to go into a certain room and to tell 
me what he finds there. The spirit of John starts, 



: See article on " Spirit the Effect of a Physical Cause," page 108. 



(83 ) 

describing the scenery on the way, until he reaches his 
destination. Now, the spirit of John is the closest 
.allied, in this case, to his physical body and senses. 
The spirit conveys to the physical, and the physical 
repeats to rue. Here we find that a distance of one 
hundred miles has beeu overcome while time has 
almost been annihilated, the entire time occupied 
being but two or three minutes. Question : Who and 
what was it that traveled that distance, describing 
scenery on the way? Surely not the physical body, 
which never left our sight. 



(84) 



CHAPTEK XII. 

REPLY TO PROFESSOR HUXLEY ON THE PHYSICAL BASIS OF 
LIFE. — PROTOPLASM DIES, OR DEAD MATTER. 

Protoplasm is composed of four substances — car- 
bon, hydrogen, oxygen, and nitrogen, — each in their 
turn containing life, as a combination. It may dis- 
integrate, but life cannot die, for there is no matter in 
life to die ; matter is but the expression of life. Pro- 
fessor Huxley uses the words, " The matter of life." 
There is no such thing. But there is such a truth as 
the life of matter. Such errors only lead to other mis- 
takes. I predict that before this generation shall have 
passed away the works of Descartes, Huxley, and 
many others of like opinion will be looked upon as the 
tail end of the dark ages ; for right where our present 
and past physical scientists have been compelled to 
halt the spirit or occult science begins. 

Nevertheless, Huxley and others have done their 
work well up to this point, and I only object to their 
using the term dead matter for matter. Subdivide 
it as small as you please, even to the infinite atom, yet 
that atom is but the expression of life, for life could 
not be the expression of matter. Protoplasm, I will 



(85) 

admit, may be the first condition in which object or 
ponderable matter takes on, as the first position, the 
combination assumed before changing from one object 
life to another. There being not less than four known 
substances, — oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, and nitrogen, 
— what caused them to come together to form one 
object life or protoplasm? Why the over-soul, or life 
fluid of the physical earth. 

Mr. Huxley speaks of converting dead protoplasm 
into living matter. How can he know that it is dead 
when he admits that oxygen (air) alone contains the 
germs of life. He here falls into the very error that 
he warns others to beware of, to wit, " That only is 
science which we know, and not that which we do not 
know." As Mr. Huxley does not know of any other 
properties in the protoplasm than the four elements 
mentioned, does it follow that his decision is final? 
He cannot testify in the negative and record it as 
science. For instance, he denies spirit. May not 
spirit exist and Huxley know nothing of it? May 
there not be other properties in the protoplasm, so 
attenuated as to be beyond the reach of the microscope 
or retort of the physical scientist, and yet be within 
the reach of the occult science which begins where 
Huxley's physical science ends — that is, at the proto- 
plasm? 

As far as the physical or ponderable earth science 
goes, I agree with him until he evidently reaches the 



( 86 ) 

end of his journey and finds himself in a most deplor- 
able dilemma, and is compelled to kill his last pro- 
duction in order to begin again, and he calls it the 
dead matter of life ( protoplasm ) . 

Alas, poor matter, why must ye die? What does 
Mr. Huxley or any other mortal know of life? Can he 
see it, weigh it, or comprehend it at all ? O ye might} 7 
minds of earth, pray tell me of what manner or combi- 
nation is the death of life, or in what condition the 
cadaver finds itself! 

Let us see : He uses the words " matter of life," 
which would imply that matter was derived from or 
produced from life, the one being a thing capable of 
being separated from the other the same as the oil of 
tar, attar of rose, etc. Now, we take away or destroy 
the matter, and we have the life remaining. The 
question then arises, What is this remainder? By 
Avhat means does the average sense of comprehension 
recognize it as a known truth ? Is it a physical thing, 
condition, or what? Can you demonstrate it (life) 
by physical science? I think not ; and yet it is a known 
or scientific truth, for it exists. Then, if it is not a 
physical, is it not an occult scientific truth? Is it not 
also infinite? Being infinite, how can you destroy it? 

He draws his deduction — and it is only a deduc- 
tion — that life ceases when motion ceases, taking it 
for granted that when motion ceases in matter there 
life ceases. But has motion ceased to be in the proto- 



( 87 ) 

plasm merely because the microscope fails to record 
it? Is it not an acknowledged fact by all scientists 
that no matter whatever is in an absolute state of rest? 
Why, his very theory of the chalk ages, the gradu 
rising from the bottom of the sea, requiring vast 
cycles of time, shows that the motion must have been 
so slow as to be entirely beyond the reach of any 
microscope; and Mr. Huxley or any other scientist, 
I think, will acknowledge that where there is motion 
there must be energy, and where there is energy there 
must be life. 

As a matter of fact, however reluctant physical 
scientists may be to acknowledge the truth, the com- 
ponent parts, quality or quantity of life, are entirely 
beyond their comprehension. They cannot deny that 
life exists ; they acknowledge it is not matter. Then, 
if it is not spirit, what is it? If they do not know what 
life is, how dare they say that they can destroy it. 

Physical scientists have always claimed that the 
foundation of all science is not to accept any phenome- 
non as truth until it I±<a& jeen absolutely proven so to 
the sense of comprehension by often-repeated investi- 
gation. Then, by this very particular rule of caution, 
they should not deny a phenomenon (such as spirit, 
for instance) or any other thing that they had not as 
equally exhaustively investigated. Hence in my deduc- 
tion when Mr. Huxley denies spirit, a truth that many 
thousands of intelligent people can swear to, I can 



( 88 ) 

come to but one conclusion, and that is that he never 
properly or fairly investigated it. 

Mr. Huxley is somewhat severe on the theologians, 
and perhaps justly so. However, those who live in 
glass houses should not throAV stones. He says the 
lobster dies, and thereby furnishes dead protoplasm 
to a live man, who eats it and converts it into live 
protoplasm. The man is drowned and furnishes dead 
protoplasm to the live lobster, who eats it and con- 
verts it into live protoplasm. Or, in other words, the 
Church proves her religion right by the Bible, and the 
Bible right by her religion. He acknowledges that 
his lobster evidence is somewhat lame for a scientist 
to advance when he calls it paradoxical, and so do 
some others. 



(89) 



CHAPTER XIII. 

PROPHECY, OR HOW COMING EVENTS CAST THEIR 
SHADOWS BEFORE. 

(February 7, 1897. Beginning of third series.) 

We feel it advisable to-day to give you a brief out- 
line of the probability of the actual truth of the above 
much disputed but existing fact by drawing a com- 
parison with those truths which your physical life has 
already demonstrated to you as facts, in the follow- 
ing manner : Let a man stand on the ocean beach at 
the incoming of the tide, when a beautiful calm rests 
upon its glorious surface, and note the little wavelets 
as they roll inward towards your feet. He will see 
each succeeding wave drawing nearer and nearer. The 
little child of five, standing at his side, whose reason- 
ing faculties are just beginning to bud, inquires: 
" What makes the waves keep growing higher and 
higher? Where does the water come from, father, and 
how far will the next wave come? " He takes the little 
one and raises him in his arms that he may the better 
see and comprehend the lesson, and points out to him 
a slight shadow far, far out on the bosom of this 



(90) 

mighty ocean (of time) and tells him to carefully keep 
his eye on the one spot and watch it and note the re- 
sults. He sees it creeping nearer and plainer until he 
discovers that the shadow is caused by what, at first, 
was the slightest and apparently insignificant rising 
of the surface of the (then passing events) water; and 
more, he learned that as it rolled it gathered in im- 
portance until it spent its force on a more substantial 
substance, the sand (of time) . And as he stood on the 
border of this ocean of time for thousands of years, 
gathering knowledge and wisdom, by carefully and 
accurately noting the effect of each and every wave, 
he found he could, by comparing notes, figure out 
almost to a grain of sand the exact amount of change 
that would occur at the breaking of a wavelet, and 
also the proportionate amount of force and change 
(evolution) that would take place at the incoming or 
far-off wave that the spirit eye of this old man of the 
sea then saw in its first or incipient formation far, far 
out on the bosom of time. From that high and exalted 
position to which he had unconsciously grown in the 
long lapse of time — say ten thousand years — when, 
like Rip Van Winkle, he suddenly bethinks himself to 
look at his feet, when lo! he discovers that his father 
has gone, himself hath grown to knowledge, and he 
beholds still another little boy of five at his feet seek- 
ing knowledge of Truth. 

And now, my student friend, to again appeal to your 



( 91 ) 

reasoning faculties, the father can give to the child 
only that amount of knowledge which it is qualified 
to receive ; he would be a poor teacher should he at- 
tempt to explain to the child by a reference to chem- 
istry or algebra, knowing such a course would confuse 
instead of enlighten. Just so is it with the lower 
sphere of spirit life ; while they, the lower spirits, who 
have but reached the first level above you, and un- 
doubtedly are qualified to teach you only the primary 
lessons, or only such as you can receive, so they, the 
lower spirits, again are taught to the full amount of 
their capacity to receive, by yet higher spirits; and 
thus it is, on and on, ad infinitum. You will be pleased 
to remember, as a father, that you as such cannot re- 
trograde and become a. little child and teach with a 
child's understanding, being at the same time mind- 
ful that even a little child can sometimes ask ques- 
tions, and that, while you are well aware of the solu- 
tion of the question, you find yourself utterly at a loss 
how to convey or impart that knowledge of Truth to 
the child in such a way that it will not be misleading, 
and thereby become an injury instead of a blessing to 
the budding mind. 

By this lesson, my friend, you will perceive that one 
more link is forged in the chain of the truth of evolu- 
tion. 



(92) 



CHAPTER XIV. 

THE GREAT OVER-SOUL, OR GOD, AND ITS AFFINITY TO 
MATTER. 

February 8, 1897. — My dear friend : Having already 
explained to some extent the existence of the infinite 
atom of matter and its unfoldment through the neb- 
ular formation of the various planets now existing, 
and hoping we have succeeded in clearing away the 
cobwebs and rubbish of ignorance, fanaticism, and 
superstition from your mind, you will now find your- 
self in a free condition to know and comprehend the 
true relation of the Great Spirit to matter. 

As at first we began at the small end or atomic for- 
mation to better fit your small capacity for the psychic 
or mystic, so now we will begin at the large end — i. e., 
the over-soul — of infinite life, matter, and space, at 
least as far as spirit comprehension can reach out, 
and convey to you our knowledge. In order to do this 
as effectively as possible, we deem it advisable to sub- 
mit to you one or more geometrical illustrations as 
we proceed. The first shall be a cross-section of the 
earth and spheres, showing the life forces or spirit 
conditions which we have formerly spoken of as 



(93 ) 

imponderable matter owing allegiance to our sun 
but belonging to the earth planet, and, by a close study 
of this progressed matter, which is shown on the draw- 
ing in the form of rings. As you will perceive, they 
are very dense near the surface of the earth and 
become more and more etherealized as they progress 
for thousands of miles outward in every direction, 
forming a perfect sphere in shape until you will ob- 
serve that they interblend with the neighboring 
planets of your solar system. This field is your spirit 
world or the first spirit home or sphere. (See illus- 
tration.) 

We will now proceed to give you a brief description 
of the spherical illustration, first begging the privilege 
of a few supplementary remarks. In viewing this 
plan you will please understand that where we show 
the undeveloped atoms of matter extending to the 
utmost limit of imagination, yet they possess life 
and this life principle or fluid (call it what you will) 
owes allegiance to the great center or over-soul of 
space. 

Now, you will notice first, the birth or dawning of 
a nebula, which, after the fullness of time, becomes 
an aerolite. This aerolite will become a comet, which 
seems to you to be wandering through space without 
any fixed position in any constellation; but, my 
friend, you are wrong, for from the -first joining of the 
first two atoms together, at that moment it had a pur- 



( 94) 

pose, very slight and almost imperceptible at the be- 
ginning, but, as it increased in its accumulation of the 
atoms of matter, it started on its journey through 
space, faster and faster, attracting other atoms unto 
and after it ; the atoms rush towards the comet as it 
grows in bulk, which increases its power of attraction, 
and these streams of atomic substance are called by 
your astronomers its tail. Now, my friend, stop here 
and consider for a moment the absurdity of such an 
assertion as a comet having two or more tails — some 
located on its side, and some in front of it. 

Some of these new-born worlds are small, while 
others are many thousands of times larger than your 
earth ; some of the smaller ones will condense into a 
star like vve show you at the moon and become fixed 
in their positions, while others are still traveling in 
space and gradually drawing to the center of their 
destiny, some of which you recognize as shooting- 
stars, but, as they become fixed in their particular 
place in space, they form one member of that family. 
So you will see by the illustration that as the star is 
the father to and governs the aerolite family, so does 
the moon become father to and govern the star and its 
family ; and again, the earth, in like manner, becomes 
father to its moon and fixed stars. So, again, our sun 
becomes father to and governs or influences the earth, 
Mars, and the balance of our planetary system. Then, 
again, our sun and its numerous family of neighbor- 



THE VORTEX WHIRL 




( 96 ) 

ing suns, become children to the second sun, or Po- 
laris, and so on, with one spherical system overlapping 
another, until it reaches the limit of comprehension, 
And I think you will admit that the limit is reached 
when, by a continuous multiplication of these systems, 
the periphery of the last sphere becomes so great that 
its surface forms a straight plane. This is a problem 
in your practical geometry, to wit: If you place a 
circle within a square, and a square within this circle, 
and repeat a circle within the square, what will be the 
last figure that you can place within? We will tell 
you — a circle; for, as the circle or sphere represents 
the atom, and contains the greatest amount of matter 
within the least amount of surface area, it will repre- 
sent the infinite fraction of subdivision. Now, we will 
begin where you began, at the square, and go the other 
way, and place, say, two circles side by side, and 
around these describe another circle; place two of 
these greater circles side by side, and so on, repeating. 
What will the result be, and how will you describe it 
or illustrate it except by a straight line or surface 
that would be the infinite of space? If you should 
think otherwise, just imagine yourself starting on a 
journey and follow this straight line. Where would 
you fetch up? Why, you would never return in your 
mind. Whereas, if it were the last conception of 
a circle in your mind, you must return to the point of 
beginning. You could not reverse the order after 



( 97 ) 

reaching a straight line and describe an upward curve, 
for by so doing you would return to a circle which 
would compel you to inclose these two circles that you 
would find lying side by side. This is why we illus- 
trate the boundary of space by a straight line, as the 
practical limit of human and spirit comprehension. 
Now, around Mars, Saturn, and the other planets, as 
well as around the various stars lying within the cir- 
cle or influence of your sun, they each and every one 
of them throw off a progressed or imponderable 
matter in every respect the same as that emanating 
from your earth. Of course, you will understand that 
the emanations from these various planets are not all 
of the same degree of advancement, some of them 
being much farther advanced and some less than the 
earth planet. As you already understand, these 
planets and stars revolve around your sun the same as 
the moon and some stars revolve around your earth ; 
and as those bodies belonging to our earth revolve 
around and owe allegiance to the earth as its especial 
family, so also do the various families of Mars, Jupi- 
ter, Saturn, etc., owe allegiance to and become sepa- 
rate members of the family of the sun. The sun 
exercises a potent influence on each member of the 
family, by and through the interblending of this im- 
ponderable or life principle, as represented by the 
outer rings shown in the illustration of the earth. 
Now, as the sun and its immense family form one 



(98 ) 

enormous sphere in space, which we will call the solar 
sphere, this sphere throws off a super-refined matter 
which extends outward for untold millions of miles 
and interblends with a brother system of solar spheres 
in precisely the same manner as the earth influence 
blends with Mars; and thus are thousands of these 
immense solar systems again revolving around a still 
greater sun, called Polaris ; and so this compounding, 
or wheel Avithin a wheel, we find, extends outwards, 
still repeating itself in boundless space until it passes 
all spirit comprehension. 

WHO AND WHAT IS GODf 

He is the one who receives your log-book at the end 
of your cruise and examines the contents found there- 
in with a just and critical eye, and spreads the same 
upon the pages of the journal of eternity. He is the 
LIFE, the LAW, and the CAUSE, and the only one 
who is PERFECT. 



( 99 ) 



CHAPTEK XV. 

GOD, LIFE, OR OVER-SOUL, ARE BUT SYNONYMOUS TERMS ; 
AND LIFE IS ALL THE GOD WE KNOW. 

We will again reverse our argument, and begin at 
the small end — i.e. the atom. When a number of atoms 
come together they produce, let us say, a monad, or 
molecule. The combining of these atoms of life form 
a family of atoms centered in and around the monad, 
which is the over-life or one life of the monad. When 
a number of monads come together as a family, they 
produce a microbe or the beginning and first appear- 
ance of physical or objective life, a cell, over which, 
by such union of monads, there is an over-life of the 
microbe. We should have mentioned that at the first 
beginning or joining of the first two atoms, — one 
being positive, the other negative, — one of these atoms 
was an unprogressed human soul from out of the in- 
finite matter of all space. This might have been the 
soul of an apple or any other ponderable or objective 
matter ; but we prefer to select and trace up the line 
of development of a human soul, and we can assure 
you that the beginning of human or spirit comprehen- 
sion begins here, at the ultimate atom of substance. 

Now, this microbe, by that over-life of matter, seeks 
a place in physical matter to progress, and, bv this 
LofC. 



( ioo ) 

life law of like to like, it is attracted to the ovum, or 
egg, through sympathetic attraction. At this stage 
begins a psychic condition, the truly spiritual ad- 
vancement of that soul, depending almost entirely 
upon the physical condition that from this point sur- 
rounds and accompanies it as it passes through the 
various phases of its earth journey. 

When the child is born into the world, and even 
before it reaches a reasoning age, you will observe that 
the mother and father have a controlling or soothing 
influence over it. Whence cometh this controlling 
influence? Certainly not from any power to reason 
that the child may have at three months of age. The 
family has now increased to, say, six children. One 
of these children becomes very sick or meets with a 
serious accident, and there is felt an influence which 
permeates the entire family. Let the parent come into 
the nursery during an angry controversy, without the 
parent speaking a word discord quietly settles down 
and harmony reigns. Thus we endeavor to show you 
that that which affects one member of the family is 
felt by the entire family. This mystic influence is the 
one over-life of that collection of souls, and is pro- 
duced by the close unity that was, little by little, 
added together as the number increased. Around 
this family has accumulated a sphere of this life in- 
fluence or sympathetic attraction and repulsion. 
When many families join together, as in a city, their 



( ioi ) 

loves and interests, being centered in the well-being 
of their city, form a sphere around this city, which is 
the over-life of the city. Many cities join to form a 
state, and all these cities are interested in the state for 
its weal or woe, and thus again is a life sphere of this 
— we will call it fluid — formed around the state. So 
it is with the United States, to be again repeated 
among all nations, and finally throughout the world. 

And thus it is brought to pass that the entire civil- 
ized world to-da}', having a sincere desire to do away 
with wars and other inharmonious matter by the best 
means at hand, have caused to be felt in the various 
over-lives of the single nations that same desire 
through the medium of this over-life which embraces 
all nations, and thus it is transmitted to the state, and 
from thence to the city, and again to the family, and 
from the family to the individual member. As this 
world is only one member of a family which is 
governed or influenced by the solar system, so it is 
enlarged and repeated to infinity, by which you will 
see that, while the city has an influence in controlling 
your affairs, yet you are at the same time a free agent 
in which your slowly developing soul admonishes you, 
"As ye sow, so shall ye reap." From an undeveloped 
atom you came to a progressed atom ; you return, and 
thus is brought to pass the saying, " The first shall be 
last, and the last shall be first." 

"Ashes to ashes, and dust to dust." 



( 102 ) 



CHAPTER XVI. 

VITALITY IN STONES — LIFE IS FOUND IN ALL THINGS. 
"It does move, for all that." — Galileo. 

We see our physical scientists are somewhat 
startled out of their boots by Professor von Schroen's 
assertion that the stones do move, and are still in- 
clined to hang onto the tail of the Dark Ages. 

As I understand it, the professor does not claim to 
be the first to discover motion in so-called inanimate 
matter, but that he is the first one to be able to demon- 
strate it in an indisputable manner by a record of its 
various changes, leaving no possible room for a doubt. 
Of course, there is always to be found in the ranks of 
men a class of would-be wiseacres that would have you 
to understand that unless the thing is first submitted 
for their approval, why, it is lunacy, humbug, impossi- 
ble, etc., which, after all, only serves the purpose of 
demonstrating to us poor mortals the fallibility even 
of some of our scientists. 

" CONSISTENCY, THOU ART A JEWEL." 

Let us compare a few well-known scientific facts 
with Professor von Schroen's assertion, and see if it 
is so very remarkable, after all. Science teaches us 



( 103 ) 

that nature abhors a vacuum, and, in like manner, she 
also teaches us that there is no such thing as an abso- 
lute state of rest. Then, if not at rest, it (matter) 
must have motion, its velocity being a secondary con- 
sideration, which von Schroen claims to be the first 
to record, and by so recording, leaves your wiseacres — 
where? 

And now for a few acknowledged facts of science. 
To produce change, requires motion; to produce 
motion, requires force; to produce force, requires 
energy (or animation) ; to produce energy, requires 
life; and to produce life, I will refer you to Professor 
Huxley and his protoplasm, or his (Huxley's) Physi- 
cal Basis of Life. He thought he had it dead to rights 
when he submitted his lobster story. While I am free 
to admit that life is forever beyond all human com- 
prehension, and it is only by the above law of nature 
that man is enabled to recognize life in the atom of 
matter, and it is further corroborated to man in his 
dealings with the elements of the so-called simple 
sixty-five substances, where like is attracted to like by 
this power of life or sympathetic attraction. 

'T is passing strange how ready some men are to 
sneer at and positively deny the discoveries of others, 
when they are never known to discover truth them- 
selves. How far would the world be advanced over 
the Dark Ages to-day if our Galileos were to be 
frowned down by these slow-going know-it-alls? 



( 104 ) 

? T is a well-known axiom that nature builds on the 
one side but to tear down on the other, and this change 
is ceaseless. This incomprehensible life-fluid has the 
power and does permeate and flow through all 
objective or physical matter, leaving a part of its 
atomic formation to advance the growth of the object 
matter, and at the same time taking away from the 
object that part which has served the law of pro- 
gression or evolution. Note the passage of the per- 
fume from the growing apple or rose. Is it not matter 
whose vibratory waves impinge on the olfactory 
nerves ? 

And the only wonder is that man to-day, after all 
the impediments that are constantly being thrown in 
his way, has succeeded in positively recording the 
velocity of said change in so-called inanimate matter, 
there really being no such a thing in existence as in- 
animation, or matter without motion. 

As we now have the matter of motion in stones un- 
der consideration, we hope the student will excuse us 
for a gradual digression from the caption of this ar- 
ticle and bear with us as we swing the subject around 
the circle to better demonstrate the law of matter and 
motion through the mystic law of life and its vehicle, 
the atom of matter. 

Physical science has thus far succeeded in subdi- 
viding matter into sixty-five simple substances. 
Thirty years ago the number was, I think, sixty-two. 



( 105 ) 

Whence comes this increase of number? We will tell 
you. It was the slow but sure advance or evolving of 
truth, which must inevitably follow in the footsteps 
of evolution. By this increase you are warned that 
the end of knowledge is not yet. 

A NEW SUBSTANCE. 

We here predict to you that before this generation 
shall have passed the Kubicon of physical life there 
will be discovered several so-called new substances, 
prominent among which will be a substance that has 
the power to flow through all objective matter, carry- 
ing with it, among other things, the secret of disease 
and health. While this mystic substance is at this 
time positively known to have existence by some of the 
advanced thinkers and experimentalists, it at the 
same time is comparatively unknown to classified 
science. To satisfy yourself of this fact converse with 
some conscientious and intelligent so-called magnetic 
healer — we mean one who has made many successful 
cures, and not a pretender. He, or she, will tell you 
there is a positive physical force which sometimes 
passes through their body and, at times, feels like a 
heavy chill which shakes them from their head to their 
heels ; and as we have already proven to you that mo- 
tion (the chill) is the effect of force acting on sub- 
stance or matter you can readily see that the healer 



( 106 ) 

receives a mystic something which passes through his 
skin into his nerves, and from him into the patient. 
As there are but three infinite truths, — life, matter, 
and space, — it naturally follows that it is not life 
alone, but matter of some kind yet to be classified or 
harnessed for man's benefit when better understood, 
and the sooner your medical doctors give this sub- 
stance a closer investigation ( catch on, so to speak, ) 
and stop displaying their intolerable ignorance by 
howling about Galileo being a crank, humbug, etc., the 
quicker they will find themselves at the head of their 
profession. 

As this same law has power to pass matter through 
one physical body into another, leaving a load of new 
material, and in its outward passage carting away the 
debris, should it be considered as anything remarkable 
that the same law should be applied to the vegetable 
kingdom? And if it is applicable to the vegetable, 
why not to the mineral or stone? 

We have already shown you how the grain of corn 
is built up by the gradual addition of atoms, while 
at the same time it is subject to health and disease 
while undergoing its earth development. Now, this 
very same process of growth applies to the mineral or 
stone. A lump of gold was not produced in a moment 
of time; your iron ore is the result of a slow atomic 
growth ; and all, all known objective matter is but the 
result of a slow process of atomic formation or growth, 



( 107 ) 

and, as we have before stated, Nature builds but to 
tear down, or integrates to disintegrate. 

There are many well-known instances where the 
rock or stone becomes rotten or dead, which is only in 
truth a process of a separation of its atomic parts, and 
by that well-known analogical law of reason if a thing 
has a so-called death it must have had a birth; in 
other words, it must first be born or integrate before it 
can die or disintegrate. 



( 108 ) 



CHAPTER XVII. 

SPIRIT THE EFFECT OF A PHYSICAL CAUSE. 

June 1, 1897. — On page 82 we made you a some what 
remarkable assertion that man had but one natural 
sense, or that he did not see with his eyes, and as this 
question will naturally have a connection with the last 
article — i. e. motion in stones — we will continue the 
subject in another direction, and endeavor to make 
plain to your understanding where the dividing-line 
between the physical science and the occult science 
crosses, or where at least one of the numerous bridges 
is located that cross the mystic stream between the 
ponderable and imponderable, and where you will 
readily see how it is possible for the physical to grad- 
ually merge into and produce, from a physical cause, 
a spirit or imponderable body. The brain of man is 
divided into two great parts — the right and left lobes 
— which is also the positive and negative position 
that all objective matter assumes. The two lobes we 
will call one family, made up of separate members. 
Each member of the family has its especial work to 
accomplish in its journey through life development or 
progression. 



(109) 

We will take up the especial work of one member 
of this family and follow it on in its work, namely, 
color. The eye receives the vibratory waves of the 
physical matter of color called red, and impinges this 
vibration of matter in motion on the optic nerve. This 
nerve is a vast accumulation of, let us say, wires which 
were not all formed at the birth of the child, but were 
formed as the child advanced in age, and were pro- 
duced as the child required them. The wires of red 
run directly to a single cell which forms a group of 
cells in the brain, whose duty in the working of the 
brain is to receive and record on the entire brain the 
laws which determine the various colors. Hence you 
will hear of color-blindness or partial color-blindness 
— i. e. a man may be insensible to the color of blue, and 
yet retain a sense of all the other colors, which we will 
explain by saying that the particular wire running 
from the optic nerve to the blue cell has become inop- 
erative or paralyzed, or the cell itself may be para- 
lyzed, or the whole group or section of the brain 
pertaining to color may have become paralyzed or in- 
operative by disease, which would result in total 
color-blindness. Again, this whole section of the 
brain, which is the life of and receives all vibrations 
of matter through the eye, may become inoperative, 
which would result in temporary or total blindness, 
according to the nature of the disease. This same 
condition applies to the olfactory nerve, the auditory 



( no ) 

nerve, the nerve of taste, and the nerve of touch; 
hence you will see that all of the so-called five senses 
submerge into one, which is the sense of touch, or feel- 
ing of matter coming into contact with other matter, 
generally understood as vibratory waves, and all of 
chese subdivisions of the sense are of a slow and grad- 
ual development, receiving each its particular share 
of knowledge in its passage through life, and storing 
it away — where? Certainly not in the nerve cell of 
gray matter, as matter in bulk, or the shell would 
burst from the accumulation of matter, especially 
when acting as a judge where you were compelled to 
listen to a long-winded lawyer. 

The brain is merely a machine to receive the highest 
progressed matter. After these waves have been re- 
ceived on the brain, they leave behind them the life 
principle in the form of imponderable matter or mat- 
ter advanced beyond the physical earth condition, and 
form a surrounding sphere of life around the man, 
which assumes the condition of a spirit. 

The writer can record his own experience in the 
matter of smell. Never in my life have I been enabled 
to smell the perfume of the violet. I have gathered 
large bunches in my hands fresh from the bed, buried 
my nose in them, and have held them over a steaming 
kettle, but invariably failed to note the slightest frag- 
rance ; and yet I have no difficulty in sensing the per- 
fume of other flowers, which will illustrate to you that 



( 111 ) 

the wave motion belonging to the violet perfume finds 
nothing to receive or record it in my brain. 

There is also another subdivision of the brain 
whose duty is to temporarily record the work of these 
so-called live senses. We use the word temporarily 
advisedly, because all men inust acknowledge that 
memory is no more reliable than sight, sound, and the 
other senses, which are often deceived ; and as memory 
has its allotted space in the cavity of the brain the 
same as sight, then why not call it a sense, making 
six senses? We know by experiment that there is a 
certain spot or portion of the brain that is subject to 
disease or disarrangement the same as the other 
senses, showing all the peculiar variations, such as: 
You can remember some things that occurred ten 
years ago, while you have entirely forgotten things 
that occurred five years ago. ( See Chapter XIX. ) 

All of these various physical effects are the results 
of ponderable matter acting on other ponderable mat- 
ter, or merely one family of atoms acting on a larger 
family of atoms, and in this case the entire brain rep- 
resents one human family, the over-life of which has 
the faculty of reducing the general results of the labor 
of its various members, such as sight, touch, smell, 
etc., to an imponderable condition (it still being mat- 
ter), from which condition the spirit is evolved. This 
condition of spirit surrounds the individual or soul, 
and grows as he grows from birth upward. Therefore, 



cm) 

you will see that surrounding conditions are the spon- 
sor for that state in which the spirit finds itself during 
your earth advancement, and in this manner if at the 
beginning of childhood you surround the child with 
nothing but vile, obscene, lying, and other inharmoni- 
ous waves of sound, and while the wires of the audi- 
tory nerve are just beginning to bud, Nature, by that 
law of the fitness of things, will produce that kind of 
a deformed brain which will again produce a deformed 
spirit, and the same law applies to sight, feeling, etc. 
How could it possibly produce that of which it had 
never had experience? 

This spirit condition begins with the birth of the 
child and is of a gradual growth and surrounds the 
physical man during his earth life, the quality of 
which is determined by his OAvn environments. It is 
this imponderable matter surrounding him that the 
spiritualist and theosophist calls his atmosphere and 
from this imponderable matter the theosophist claims 
that his astral shell is produced while we, the pro- 
gressed spirits, will tell you that it is through and by 
this atmosphere that we are enabled to produce the 
various phenomena now occurring throughout the 
earth plane. 

To further illustrate this advanced matter called 
spirit surroundings, we call your attention to your 
own experience. Have you not at times been engaged 
in a conversation with a friend and, while paying par- 



( 113 ) 

tieular attention to what lie was saying and giving him 
a proper reply, yet at the very same moment you were 
thinking of something else entirely foreign to the 
subject? Now, let me ask: What or who was this 
silent thought emanating from? There were waves 
of vibration ; from whence came they? Was it not the 
refined, imponderable matter that is the only real pari 
of you, the / AM, the so-called inner conscience or 
spirit man, the part that never disintegrates? 

Again, when you have retired to rest and have 
passed into that profound sleep when your physical 
senses such as sight, hearing, smell, etc., are, as you 
must admit, lying in a dormant or inactive condition, 
yet you have a most vivid and realistic dream. You 
plainly distinguish color, smell, taste, etc., and it is 
so real that upon awakening you can hardly realize 
that it was but a dream. Here is one of the evidences 
that time is not real, only man-made, for the conven- 
ience of recording events ; for in that dream you found 
your time all mixed up, and also in that dream you 
realized a sort of vagueness ; you were unable to con- 
nect facts, dates, and conditions systematically to- 
gether. 

My friend, while you are in that dreamy state, you 
are in the same state that many spirits who have just 
left the physical body and entered the spirit world or 
imponderable condition of life find themselves; and 
this dreamy state is but another one of those mystic 



( 114 ) 

bridges that leads you over the great divide from the 
physical to the occult side of life (the psychophysical 
state). Here on the spirit side of life many spirits 
continue on and on for a long time, still thinking that 
they are dreaming, and advanced spirits find it some- 
times very difficult to bring them to a realizing sense 
of their condition. 



( 115 ) 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

MATERIALIZATION. 

(June 9, 1897.) 

After having prepared your mind to receive a little 
more light in regard to the mystic bridge that leads 
from the physical to the occult, we will call your at- 
tention to the very difficult situation in which we are 
placed in having to harmonize the spirit and the phys- 
ical with your understanding. We feel that it is in- 
cumbent upon us to advance slowly, taking up one 
subject at a time, or being careful to select but one 
bridge at a time for you, the student, to investigate. 
By so doing, our object will be to confine your atten- 
tion to the one particular bridge or subject; for our 
experience is, that a very great majority of investiga- 
tors fail in comprehending these mystic truths, by 
endeavoring to cross too many bridges at one time, 
and thereby defeat their own object, by their confu- 
sion of the various forces used by the spirits in pro- 
ducing the numerous phenomena; and, to illustrate 
this, we will now take up the phenomena of materiali- 
zation. 

When you are looking upon, handling, or seeming 
to converse with a materialized spirit, we will say that 
ninety-nine out of one hundred are very apt to be in a 



(116) 

measure deceived and led to invariably draw wrong 
deductions ; so real, so lifelike are these phenomena, 
that, unless the investigator is constantly on his 
guard, he will be disappointed, unsatisfied, and be- 
wildered ; and all caused by his own ignorance of the 
real, basic facts that govern the phenomena. 

And right here we will call the attention, not only 
of the younger student, but also of many old veterans 
to the cause of their often becoming unsatisfied and 
apparently mystified, by describing the real state of 
affairs, as follows : — 

The body that you really see and touch is a physical 
body — a body only, and purely automatic. It at times, 
and in fact quite often, will be made up in the exact 
image of your friend ; but it is no more your friend's 
body than a wooden post is. 

This body is made up by purely chemical laws, un- 
derstood and operated by the spirits of the imponder- 
able atoms of matter in the room, and of which you 
are breathing, and also of other matter which the 
spirits find in space. In fact, the body is made up of 
several substances not yet fully understood by your 
scientists, as we have already remarked. After the 
body is made up, the spirits can furnish that body 
with the power to locomote a short distance from the 
medium by using the medium's physical forces, and 
also give it the power to articulate, using again the 
medium's vocal organs. This is done somewhat in the 
same manner as the hypnotist controls his subject, 
both in motion and speech. 

The hypnotic subject and the materialized body are 
mere automatons, controlled entirely by the will of 



( 117 ) 

another. The materialized body, while talking to you, 
has no more knowledge of what it is saying or doing 
than a parrot, and not as much. When you ask it 
questions, the controlling influence hears you and 
causes it to reply to your question, giving you as cor- 
rect a reply as the control can sense from your sur- 
roundings. 

This is the common practice in seances, and it is to 
be deplored to this extent : the medium for materiali- 
zation, as a general rule, is entirely ignorant of the 
so-called higher laics — for what is higher than truth ? 
— governing his own seance, and is really as much 
mystified as you are. But the almighty dollar must be 
made, for the spirit's medium — or they, the spirits — 
cannot gratify their desire to communicate with mor- 
tals. They are well aware that if they were to explain 
the plain truth, their occupation would be somewhat 
curtailed. Hence it is to their interest to leave you to 
believe you are talking to your own friends. 

We do not wish to be understood as saying that you 
own spirit friends are not at times present in the 
room; for oftentimes they are, and can convey their 
thoughts, in a measure to the controlling spirit who 
manipulates the automaton. To test this, ask your 
spirit friends when you meet them at some other 
medium's seance, what they told you at the other se- 
ance. You will find that almost the invariable answer 
is : "J do not know. I seem to forget." This same an- 
swer you will get from the hypnotic subject after his 
release from the influence. 

However, there are times when your spirit friends 
find the conditions and the controlling spirits in har- 



( 118 ) 

niony with the spirit and yourself — i. e. your atmos- 
phere — so that they can communicate quite plainly to 
you ; and if you should be so fortunate as to visit an- 
other medium under the same favorable circumstances 
(which is very rare), they could give you only scraps 
of their former conversation. 

(June 10, 1897.) 

If this were not the case, and the spirit of your fa- 
ther was actually occupying this materialized body at 
the time, made up to look exactly like your father, and 
was capable of using his own power of thought or in- 
telligence, then why, in the name of common sense and 
the laws of philosophy, can he not answer such plain 
questions as, " How many brothers and sisters have 
I? What are their names? Where was I born? " etc. 
It has always been asserted (and truthfully so) that 
these phenomena are purely scientific facts, and oper- 
ated by scientific laws; while if, on the other hand, 
you take nothing for granted, that is not a direct ap- 
peal to your own common sense, and investigate on the 
line of a purely automaton figure, controlled by a 
psychical law similar to hypnotism, which is already 
a proven scientific fact, then this seeming unsatisfac- 
tory interview of a materialized spirit will be fully 
explained on a purely scientific basis. 

THE OBJECT OF MATERIALIZATION. 

And when you come to consider the object of spirit 
materialization and why it is found expedient by the 
spirits to produce the phenomena, you will readily see 



(119 ) 

its usefulness, which we will endeavor to explain to 
you. 

There are a very great number of the people on 
earth who are not qualified to comprehend any very 
deep subject, who generally rely upon their neighbors 
or common report for their information and belief to 
guide them on their journey through life, being too 
busy seeking after the almighty dollar to spend suf- 
ficient of their time to enable them to separate their 
belief from actual knowledge. The spirits recognize 
the fact that these people can be reached in some di- 
rection — if not by their love of knowledge, then by 
their lower animal curiosity. 



ANIMAL CURIOSITY. 

To prove that the animal has a curiosity, we will 
suggest that you place a horse in an inclosed lot; 
then place a buffalo-robe or an open umbrella on or 
near the fence. Now, observe the horse, keeping your- 
self out of his sight. You will see him first becoming 
frightened (and this sometimes applies to your first 
experience in a seance room) ; then he will gradually 
begin to circle around the further side of the inclosure, 
but gradually drawing nearer to the object of his 
fright, until he can smell it and touch it with his nose. 
If it was not curiosity in him, why did he go up to it? 
If it was fear alone that was acting on his sense, he 
would have kept as far away from it as the fence 
would allow. Therefore, by this same known law, the 
spirits can and do approach man that is found on the 
lower planes of life, by working on his curiosity in 



( 120 ) 

producing such phenomena as he, like the horse, can 
see, smell, hear, and touch. 

When, after awakening his lower developments 
through his animal curiosity alone, he at that time 
having but little spiritual development, sees, and light 
begins to dawn on his comprehension, and slowly he 
arrives at the knowledge that it might be possible — 
just barely possible — that even he is the possessor of 
a soul, and, by often repeated investigations, he comes 
to the conclusion that, if he possesses a soul, it must 
be something beyond the physical, and if so. must it 
not continue after the so-called death of the body? 
Having now succeeded in awakening in the lower man 
a desire to investigate, the next step, then, is that he 
finds it necessary for him to know more of the laws 
which govern these phenomena, if he wishes to arrive 
at a proper understanding of the truth. 

EDUCATED PARROTS. 

This class of people may be highly educated, as the 
world's idea of education goes ; but to be educated in 
this manner does not imply a very great amount of 
practical knowledge of truth. Take, for instance, a 
doctor of medicine, and add to his anatomical knowl- 
edge a knowledge of the classics, etc. ; now ask him 
what a foot-pound really represents. Again, ask him 
what he knows practically of life, hypnotism, magnet- 
ism, etc. Take, in fact, nine out of ten young students 
just fresh from college, plastered all over with sheep- 
skins, medals, and diplomas, crammed to the brim with 
education, and ask them to give you a practical solu- 
tion of matter and space, the cause of the rotary and 



( 121 ) 

revolutionary movement of the planets, or what causes 
the declination of the earth's axis, etc., and they will 
either stare in open-mouthed wonder at your audacity 
or fall into that childish error of repeating, parrot- 
like, some ancient, musty quotation, taught to them by 
some old fossilized fogy that will neither satisfy you 
or themselves. 

What matters it whether the word is spelled cor- 
rectly or not, whether the English or Greek pronun- 
ciation is correct, or whether you are a trained elocu- 
tionist or not, if you have a practical knowledge of 
truth and common sense? Or whether it be called a 
rose or a stinkweed? What signify words after all 
when compared to the actual living and existing 
truth? Words are but man-made and often lead you 
into a serious mistake of the real truth. For instance, 
you are educated into the belief that there is such a 
thing in existence as inanimation, darkness, cold, a 
vacuum, death, time, etc. Wrong, wrong, all wrong, 
my friend ; for by teaching the budding mind of youth 
that such things exist only beclouds their vision of the 
living and existing truth, which in after years of their 
own more mature minds helps to blunt and obscure 
the truth when they come to try and harmonize these 
false gods with their own common sense. 

One of the greatest stumbling-blocks the spirits 
find in their way to a proper explanation of the occult 
science, is your improper, indefinite, and misleading 
words called language. Your language is behind the 
age in which you live and badly needs overhauling 
to fit the many newly discovered truths, not only by 
addition, but by subtraction. 



(122) 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THAT WHICH THINKS THOUGHTS, OR BIRTH OP THE 
SPIRIT BODY. 

(June 11, 1897.) 

We will now proceed to build you another bridge 
over the mystic stream that is supposed to run be- 
tween the physical and the occult, sometimes known 
as the River Styx, and will endeavor to show you how 
physical matter is gradually transformed or changed 
into the imponderable or spirit matter ; and we pray 
you to watch and weigh carefully every step you take 
in crossing this bridge, and satisfy your mind whether 
or not it is a direct appeal to philosophy and your own 
common sense. And as, in the preceding chapter, we 
selected but one of your senses and applied but one ob- 
ject of matter, so will we proceed in this discourse, and 
will select the sense of smell and the progress of the 
apple, which rule of progression will apply to all 
other waves of perfume. 

The apple is built up in two directions, or, more 
properly speaking, by two active forces of energy ; one 
by way of the sap beneath the bark, and the other by 
means of this substance we have before spoken of as 
carrying with it, among other things, the secret of 
disease and health. In this discourse, we will call it 



( 123 ) 

the vehicle that conveys the unprogressed atom, which 
at all times is seeking a means of advancing and un- 
folding to its highest earth-development. The atom 
of matter which is in affinity to the apple is conveyed 
along its journey until brought in contact with the 
growing apple, and, with the assistance of this energy, 
is passed through the skin of the apple and takes its 
place among the family of atoms that is engaged in 
building up the object, or perfect apple. These single 
atoms are not lying idle in their new position, but are 
constantly in motion, something like bees in the comb, 
bringing with them on their arrival certain elements 
and departing when their work in that direction is 
accomplished, by means of this same subtle fluid-sub- 
stance or vehicle — call it what you may — carrying 
with them that atom of matter which has done its 
work in the apple. Then this outgoing atom finds it- 
self in an advanced condition from that in which it 
found itself when it first entered the apple, and is 
recognized by man as the perfume of the apple. And 
you will here admit that this flow of matter is con- 
stant from the blossom to the mature apple, and can- 
not for one moment be denied that it is in the form of 
vibrating waves. 

And now a question, please. If all vibratory waves 
are not matter in motion, then, in the name of com- 
mon sense, what are they? You are aware that there 
could be no such thing as motion without some thing 
to move. In this case, the thing moved was the on- 
ward march of the progressive atom of the apple, still 
seeking further means and opportunity to advance in 
the grand and wonderful order of evolution. 



( 124 ) 

In their second stage of progression, they come in 
contact with the olfactory nerve, and from thence 
they are conveyed to the particular cell in the brain 
whose duty it is to receive and record the perfume of 
an apple; and, while acting on this brain-cell, it finds 
it has undergone another or second birth, and has 
again changed to a still more refined or advanced con- 
dition and slightly begins to understand the condition 
that the imponderable matter assumes. The work 
that this atom found it was called upon to do in the 
brain-cell was to leave a physical impression on the 
brain, called a Think; and at this stage it is only a 
think; for this cell is subject to disease and disinte- 
gration, in which case the think will have become lost, 
so to speak. This is immediate cognition. 

Perhaps the expression may somewhat wrinkle the 
sheepskin of our college professors and cause you to 
smile ; therefore, we will explain what we mean by a 
Think. You will observe that we started to build this 
bridge on one single atom of matter, or that which 
thinks thought. Now, try to comprehend or define the 
amount of space, by the three dimensions of length, 
breadth, and thickness, that this ultimate atom would 
occupy, and then consider that there is located in the 
brain a cell, especially provided to receive that partic- 
ilar kind of an atom, and whose duty it is, to refine or 
separate the gross from the finer matter, passing the 
finer on its journey; then, at this stage, would be 
produced the first conception or single atom that is 
required to build or produce a concept, or Thought. 
And as a whole thought, like the apple, requires a 
number of atoms in its construction, then a single 



( 125 ) 

atom is but one integral part, or a Think; which we 
think (excuse the bull) will better represent the singu- 
lar number, and in this first stage of conception, is 
not a full-blown or crystallized thought until it is 
passed into the keeping of that whole section of the 
brain pertaining to smell ; and from this explanation 
we will proceed. 

This think, or special wave, does not become knowl- 
edge until the cell performs its work on it, similar to 
the service the growing apple rendered it. This cell 
then renders a report to that particular portion or 
family of the brain whose work is to receive and 
classify all sense of smell, and when this is done its 
duty is to impinge on or report its work to the whole 
brain, when a third birth of matter takes place and it 
assumes the form of gross or physical knowledge. Up 
to this stage, it is almost purely a mechanical opera- 
tion or animal condition, and in man is recognized as 
your fust or physical sense, which is built up of the 
refined atoms of the various substances of earth, 
which, like the atom of the apple, are seeking the 
means and opportunity to advance. This is the birth 
of conception. 

Now. my friend, we have brought you to about the 
middle of our bridge, or the dawning of light and 
knowledge, from out of the physical and grosser 
matter of earth. And right at this point you will 
observe how necessary it is for you to be careful in 
selecting the surroundings of the building mind of 
childhood, for these laws are but the mills of the gods, 
who p;rind slow, sure, and exceedingly fine, whose 
work is inevitable from cause to effect. 



(126 ) 

And now we will proceed to the fourth birth. The 
duty of the entire brain is to receive the various re- 
ports or work of its separate groups or families and 
their experiences and to assort out and strike a mean 
value of their separate works, which we will call, for 
the want of a better name, the family that Think? 
Thouglits. At this stage, the atom finds it has reached 
a condition that is but little short of imponderosity, 
and is associated with innumerable atoms in like con- 
dition, and this family of atoms constitutes the purely 
physical or animal intelligence that accompanies your 
first or physical body through its life journey. The 
duty or work of this family is to select the refined 
matter of thought and to reject or throw off that part 
which has not yet reached a sufficient development. 

At this point, you will see that the judgment neces- 
sary to a proper selection is dependent on all previous 
conditions of the body while in a state of progression, 
the first paving the way for the second, and so on. 
Hence you can now comprehend why the surround- 
ing conditions are responsible for a perfect body ; for 
the body, at this stage, is now called upon to produce 
the fifth birth, which assumes the condition of a spirit 
body, said spirit body having to depend entirely upon 
such materials as you, the physical body, may have 
gathered in your journey through life and trans- 
ferred to it, the spirit, of imponderable matter. 

And at this stage of growth you can comprehend 
why, and how it is, that two apparent sets of thoughts 
can seem to occupy your brain at the same moment of 
time. We say seem, for you will now readily recog- 
nize that there are two of you, thinking at the same 



(127 ) 

time; one, the ponderable or physical body, which 
works through a purely mechanical process of gray 
matter, and the spirit body of imponderable or ad- 
vanced matter. 

BIRTH OF THE SOUL. 

This brings us almost over the bridge, but not quite, 
as the spirit body has at this point emerged from the 
earthy or ponderable matter (dropped the earthy, so 
to speak) but still is composed of matter in an im- 
ponderable condition. And from this spirit condition 
is produced a sixth birth, which we call the soul of 
matter, beyond which point of change we cannot 
advise you in a definite manner. But we presume — 
and it is only a presumption — that the soul itself is 
still subject to a higher change, on and on and on. 
into the very essence of life, the great Over- Soul, the 
Infinite. 

THE CAUSE OF ALL CAUSATION. 

But you can now see, as we stated in the earlier 
part of this work, that your surroundings develop a 
good or bad body, which develops the spirit, which 
again is responsible for a perfect soul. 

And now, my brother, as we have endeavored to 
pilot you over this mystic bridge — and we hope we 
have succeeded — pause and look around ; drink of this 
cup of knowledge and common sense, and realize how 
very simple, how exact, how perfect and without 
waste, does Nature perform her grand march of evolu- 
tion — turning neither to the right nor to the left, but 



(128) 

an exact, merciful, just and loving Father to us all, 
without regard to race, creed or condition. 

And thus it ever was, is now, and ever will be : Life, 
matter, and space without end, the Cause of all causa- 
tion. 

As a further illustration, we Avould ask: Why do 
a large majority of people close their eyes, when sud- 
denly called on to solve some problem, if it is not for 
the purpose of concentrating their thoughts? And if 
it does concentrate them it is in order to inquire how 
it practically does so. 

First we assert that thought is an entity and occu- 
pies space as such, but does so as something other 
than substance. 

We may hypothecate that thought and force are 
things that occupy the space that would be between 
the ultimates (spherical atoms) of substance, or that 
part of infinite space assumed by Democritus as a 
void or his second principle of matter. To concen- 
trate a thing is to make it occupy a smaller place, 
similar to compressing a bale of cotton, etc. 

Thought manifests its presence in some cases by 
vibrating from other objects. 

We are accustomed to say we see an object, — an 
apple, for instance, — but this is not the absolute fact, 
for it is just the contrary — the apple sees us; and we 
substantiate our assertion in this manner. 

The rays of light must first come in contact with 
the object, and are then reflected from the object into 
the eye. It does so by vibration. This is motion. 
Hence we know that where you have motion you havo 
the force to impart it and the thought to direct it. 



( 129 ) 

This thought at its passage from the apple on to the 
brain, by way of the optic nerve, produces what is 
termed a concept, or an embryonic think.* 

The reason for closing the eye while concentrating 
your thoughts is to assist the / am, or spirit self, in the 
act of reflecting back on to your brain fully crystal 
lized thoughts from out of your spirit atmosphere to 
organize reason; this atmosphere is recognized by 
some as mind, by others as will, and by this back 
action it directs and controls your physical organs of 
speech, and a word or language is bom. 

With the eyes open, standing in an orchard, a 
variety of objects are reflecting rays on the eye at the 
same moment, and as each object or ray must be 
accompanied with its director (thought), the same 
medley is produced as though a dozen voices were all 
trying to speak at the same time, and affect the audi- 
tory nerve in precisely the same manner. 

This is designated by some as conscious and sub- 
conscious, by others as the sublimary self ; that is, they 
recognize the act of doable thinking, and feel called 
upon to account for it in some manner, and if not in 
a common sense or comprehensive manner, then other- 
wise, — such as sublimary self, for instance. 

As we have denied the existence of a void or 
vacuum, and assume a priori that the form of the 
atom is spherical, then these two seeming incongrui- 
ties we are obliged to harmonize or break the chain of 
our philosophy ; so we will explain it in this way. 

After placing these four marbles (atoms) in the 
form of a molecule, or body, this would leave a void 



See Consciousness. 



(130) 

in the center, and if not occupied by something other 
than substance, it would indeed represent a vacuum ; 
but we contend that this space is filled with that 
essence, the existence of which we recognize a priori 
by its seeming effect on matter, two existing things, 
(if anything does exist) of which the human senses 
are the most cognizant of from experience and yet 
know the least of namely, THOUGHT and FORCE. 



(131 ) 



CHAPTEK XX. 

PLANETARY AND ELEMENTARY SPIRITS, SO-CALLED. 

Before advancing with our remarks on the above 
subject, we will allow that it is not exactly our object 
to take the negative of truth, i. e. it is not incumbent 
upon us to endeavor to offer you the evidence of the 
non-existence of every fad or fallacy that may become 
seated in the various minds of the people of earth. 
We think that such an undertaking would be a triiie 
too much, to say nothing of the useless waste of paper. 

However, we will crave your indulgence for this 
one subject, as it has a tendency to beguile and mis- 
lead the student after those false Gods of which we 
have warned you before. And, as we find that many 
spiritualists of to-day are inclined to cast a smiling 
eye on this old Hindu myth, we do not think what few 
remarks we may have to offer for your consideration 
will seriously incommode your studies ; therefore we 
will begin by taking the bull by the horns at once and 
say that, either we are entirely mistaken in all that we 
have advanced as regards the truth of evolution, i. e. 
that it begins with the very first original atom of 
matter in an undeveloped state as it then and now 
fills all space, awaiting a time and opportunity to ad- 
vance to a higher and better condition, or we have 
asserted the simple truth as human nature in the nine- 
teenth century can understand it. 



( 132 ) 

So far we have endeavored to give you one unbroken 
chain of known evidence, as viewed .and acknowledged 
by your scientific laws. Therefore, the question now 
forces itself upon us : shall we break the chain at this 
point; or rather, should we not seek to strengthen it? 

And now, my friend, in speaking of elementary 
spirits, it is but just to those who advocate the exist- 
ence of such spirits for us to concede that words do 
not always convey the truth ; and it might be said by 
such advocates that, while it is probable that the word 
" elemental," as used in the above sense, is incorrect 
when applied to spirit, that they still insist on the 
actual existence of a spirit that had never yet been 
possessed at any previous time of a form or passed 
through the earth conditions. 

THE BIRTH OF INTELLIGENCE AND WISDOM. 

Physical matter, in its first known state, is that 
body of substance that fills all known space in the 
form of the atom. The first change or move of ad- 
vancement of this atom is to seek to join another 
atom, which is the very first beginning of — let us say 
— our ivorld. And right at this point you have the 
■first undeniable evidence of life and intelligence. You 
have the evidence of life in the force and motion it 
displays ; you have the evidence of intelligence by the 
proofs of its seeking another atom and permanently 
joining the same for a particular preconceived pur- 
pose. If this does not constitute intelligence, pray 
what does? That is, if intelligence does not begin at 
this very point, then it could not have a beginning. 
And at this point, you will see, is the very ulti- 



( 133 ) 

mate beginning of human comprehension of ele- 
mentary organization and the subdivision of 
intelligence, which follows the life of the atom 
through all of its various stages of advancement, 
from the nebulous or gaseous stage to the liquid, 
thence the solid or rock, thence the vegetable, 
again the animal. And at this point, as we have 
shown you elsewhere, by a description of the atmos- 
phere of the apple, the atom of intelligence finds an 
opportunity to advance in the form of a Think, when, 
by a union of this think matter, derived from sight, 
hearing, smell, and the other nerves of sense, it ad- 
vances to the condition of an embryo thought and is 
impinged on the entire brain, whose duty it is to refine 
and classify it into human intelligence. This intelli- 
gence is not made manifest to a child of one day old 
to any appreciable extent, but gathers around the 
child, atom by atom, following the gradual develop- 
ment of the budding mind or reason. The infinite 
object of human life on the earth planet is to develop 
this same reason into intelligence, which is gathered 
around you as you make your journey through earth 
life; and by a constant opportunity being given you 
to exercise your human or physical senses, you de- 
velop wisdom from the experience of these physical 
senses. 

ASTRAL SHELL. 

This wisdom, intelligence, experience, etc., are 
gathered around your physical body in the same 
manner as the perfume is gathered around the apple, 
in the form of imponderable matter. Out of this 



( 134) 

matter is produced a spirit, — you may call it at this 
stage your earth spirit, which has often been mis- 
understood by the neophyte investigator, — as an 
astral shell or elementary spirit, and it is by this 
atmosphere of imponderable atoms that sensitives are 
enabled to read your surroundings wherever you are 
or may have been. Being in a room, for instance, and 
you have left the room, you leave a portion of that 
atmosphere behind you in precisely the same manner 
as the apple leaves its fragrance in the room after it 
has been removed, that which is left is that portion of 
matter that has not advanced sufficiently to be able to 
take the next step in evolution, hence the necessity 
of its being returned to the earth, or the mills of the 
gods, to be again ground over. 

You will now be enabled to more clearly understand 
from this description of the order of advancement 
(evolution) how impossible and illogical it would be 
for a spirit to be produced from an element of un- 
developed matter before that atom had first passed 
through the various primary degrees of earthly organ- 
ization or form. 

One of the first objects of infinite life is order op 
classification. This is accomplished by first bringing 
two or more elementary atoms of primary matter 
together, which develops the form or shape of an 
object. Could the apple be produced before the tree, 
or the tree before the sprout? Is it rational to sup- 
pose that the soul was produced before the spirit, or 
that the spirit body was before the physical or earth 
body? For those who claim to know of such ele- 
mentary spirits as half horse and half man, we would 



( 135 ) 

like to ask, Where did these abnormal spirits get their 
knowledge and experience of form and shape from in 
order to build on? Now, my friend, we hardly think 
it necessary for us to proceed any further on this sub- 
ject, as we are inclined to think it condemns itself, but 
will proceed to inquire into the truth of the planetary 
spirits being able to manifest to the denizens of the 
earth. 

In order to illustrate this matter to you, we will say 
that the earth is eight thousand miles in diameter, and 
around the earth is, we will call it, a supermundane 
sphere, extending outward for a distance of, say, one 
million of miles. This we will call the spirit world of 
this earth, and it is composed of the eliminations of 
imponderable matter that has passed through the 
necessary earth conditions, but is still a part of your 
globe or world, only in a higher condition. Please 
remember that the fact that you cannot see it is no 
proof of its non-existence ; for you cannot see atmos- 
pheric air, thought, etc., yet they have an actual 
existence. Again, you will remember that all objec- 
tive earth matter is only seeming and only entered 
that state in order to enable it to make further ad- 
vancement and will eventually return to a state in- 
visible to the human eye. Now, all matter, of 
whatsoever nature, is only held in the spirit world 
after it has secured all the advancement that the 
physical earth or world can give it, and, as we have 
stated in another part of this work, the denser matter 
is held next the surface of the earth. Now, the same 
law of progression governs the spirit world that 
governs the ponderable matter of earth. 



(136 ) 

To illustrate for this purpose, we will say that you 
cannot retrograde, — that is, the father cannot become 
a little child again, nor can he impart all of his knowl- 
edge to a child of five years of age; he may explain 
to the child the mysteries of the steam-engine, but how 
much does the child comprehend of the matter? Just 
so the spirits try to teach you, and so again the pro- 
gressed or higher spirits teach of their discoveries of 
the outer circles of spirit life. 

Once more your attention, please. We will suppose 
again that Jupiter, Mars, and the other planets of our 
sun are of just the same dimensions, with each a spirit 
sphere of like dimensions. We will place these 
spheres in space just two millions seven thousand 
miles apart, that is, from center to center, — by so 
placing them you will see that the outer circle of the 
two planets interblend to the depth of one thousand 
miles. Spirits that have advanced to this great and 
glorious condition are so refined as to dazzle the 
understanding of those spirits who are next to the 
surface of the earth, and we do not wonder that they 
take them for demigods, in the same manner that 
mediaeval man mistook the earth spirits for gods, — 
particularly poor old Moses, who never was very 
bright when at his best. 

As each planet has an over-life of its own, and is 
bent on working out the problem of that life in the 
same manner as the child has its individual life to 
pursue, though its aches and pains are sensed to a 
limited degree by the other members of the family, so 
it is with the family of planets that form individual 
members of our sun family ; and as the goal of ambi- 



( 137 ) 

tion of the spirits of our planet earth is to advance 
into the home of the soul or the outer circle of our 
mother sun, then it stands to reason that for them to 
seek an advancement in the direction of a brother 
planet would lead them backwards towards another 
planet. Therefore the only attraction that prevails 
among planetary spirits is after they have left their 
spirit spheres and become members of the outer sun's 
sphere or home of the soul. Whatever influence was 
felt by one planetary spirit from another would only 
be at that extreme point in the outer environments of 
the two supermundane spheres, and then only as one 
member of a family feels or senses the wish of another 
under very lofty conditions. You will see, therefore, 
that for our advanced spirits to return or be attracted 
to Mars, or the spirits of Mars to be attracted to the 
earth, would be a retrograde movement. That the 
spirits of our earth who have advanced to the outer 
periphery of our supermundane sphere can and do 
convey, by impression, a part of their knowledge to 
those spirits who are a degree below them is true in 
the same manner as the father conveys impressions 
to his children; he explains to the oldest, who, in 
turn, explains, to the best of his ability, to the younger 
members. So you will see about how near under these 
conditions you, the people of earth, can come to an 
exact comprehension of what is taking place physi- 
cally on the planet Mars. 

It is thus we explode the bubble of planetary spirit 
communication. Why, not one medium in a hundred 
can really understand and interpret the communica- 
tions that you are now receiving from the lower spirit 



( 138 ) 

world, and until you learn to live and surround your- 
selves and families with a higher sense of spiritual 
life, you never will. 



( 139 ) 



REINCAENATION. 

The only authority you have for a belief in 
reincarnation is from the fact that many people now 
living on the earth plane who are known among you 
as very intellectual persons, and even yourself, intel- 
lectual or otherwise, have positively asserted that 
they can remember vaguely circumstances that 
seemed to have occurred to them when they were in 
some previous life. This is all of the evidence, if it 
may be accepted as evidence, those so asserting can 
advance, and is one of the principal arguments ad- 
vanced by the Theosophists in support of re-embodi- 
ment. 

The cause of this feeling which at times comes over 
those who so testify is, that they, at the time of such 
occurrence, are being influenced or acted upon by 
some ancient or modern spirit who does not possess 
the knowledge or power to successfully control their 
mentality so as to make himself recognized by them, 
but can only partially hypnotize them; this places 
them in a sort of dazed condition where they become 
slightly obsessed — not sufficiently to do them any 
harm at first, but it is like taking the first drink or 
opium pill — the beginning of the units, so to speak, 
or first cause. 

You may frequently see a professional medium 
characterize a spirit, and in this condition they lose 



(140 ) 

their own individuality and become at the time the 
ancient spirit, and, as such, remember of course only 
their past life, but the spirit, while obsessing the 
medium or sensitive, may only be able to faintly re- 
call the past, owing to the conditions of harmony be- 
tween you at that moment. 

A great many people can recall instances of their 
lives where they have done or said things in a moment 
when, in the next moment, they could not for their 
lives tell why they did or said it, and have felt ex- 
tremely mortified therefrom. This is from the same 
cause. 

As a partial illustration, we will ask you what it 
is or whence comes the great physical force suddenly 
developed by the heart, while sitting in a passive con- 
dition, after having been informed by a friend of the 
death of, or severe accident to, a dear relative; or, 
again, you may be lying down in that comatose state 
between sleep and awake when suddenly your heart 
gives a great jump and you feel as though you had 
just escaped some great accident by a hair's breadth. 
This was not caused by the action of your physical 
senses ; you were not even drawing on your imagina- 
tion, yet here was a physical result of a violent work- 
ing of the heart. This will serve to show you that 
you are surrounded at all times by an ether, atmos- 
phere, or call it what you please, that comes in con- 
tact with a similar atmosphere of your own in which 
the real I AM of you exists, and can and is acted upon 
by an imponderable substance almost entirely inde- 
pendent of your physical body. Many persons ob- 
serve this phenomenon just at that period when pass- 



(141 ) 

ing from wakefulness to sleep ; at this stage the phys- 
ical body, and especially the brain-cells, are in a 
negative condition, but sensitive to spirit forces. 

Now, a spirit, we will say, that was removed from 
the body by some sudden and violent cause, — say 
blown up or knocked overboard and drowned, — comes 
into your atmosphere and, by so doing, the spirit 
instantly takes on the condition that caused its re- 
moval from the body. This shock is precipitated on 
to the negative or sleeper's atmosphere, which, in 
turn, suddenly casts it on to that group of the physical 
brain governing the organism of the heart in so vio- 
lent a manner that the brain-cells can not systemati- 
cally receive and classify it, — in almost the same 
manner, in fact, as a birthmark is produced. (See 
Chapter XXIV. ) Your physical brain was not think- 
ing at the time ; therefore this sudden, startling sensa- 
tion cannot be attributed to the imagination. All 
that you seem to realize at the moment is that some- 
thing awful is about to happen. If not from a wander- 
ing spirit, where does this feeling of dread come 
from? Alas, how many unfortunate mortals have 
been and are now incarcerated in lunatic asylums 
charged with lunacy that owe their presence in such 
institutions solely to obsession through this cause! 
This phenomenon is a known fact, and almost every 
one has at some period of his life experienced such a 
shock. Here, you will perceive, is a direct communi- 
cation to the muscles from the brain that controls 
them. This fact will serve to show that thought 
exists independent of words or language; Max 
Muller's " Science of Thought " to the contrary, about 
which we shall have more to sav later. 



(142) 

Many spirits on first entering into the spirit con- 
dition, either from violence or otherwise, do not 
realize that they have made the passage which you 
call death, and drift around in a somewhat dazed 
condition, being strongly attracted to the physical or 
earth matter, when they find themselves in the atmos- 
phere of some mortal who happens to be sensitive to 
that particular spirit. There is an influence generated 
by such contact that awakens or enervates both the 
spirit and sensitive, and this influence is felt from the 
faintest degree to the wildest state of obsession, de- 
pending entirely on the amount of harmony at the 
moment existing between the two; hence, while to 
some the impression of a past existence is very vague 
and shadowy, to others it is more pronounced. 

As you are aware, there are many well-authenti- 
cated instances where persons have suddenly lost 
their own identity or individuality and taken on all 
the memory and personality of another, the one 
X)ersonated invariably being one of your so-called 
dead, and this condition has continued in some for 
only a few moments, while in others it has continued 
for years. 

And now, my friend, just exercise your own 
common sense in passing judgment on this, our expla- 
nation of the fallacy of reincarnation, and see if those 
who advocate such an antagonizing theory to the in- 
evitable law of evolution can or do offer you any 
evidence that is sustained by any as well-known or 
as fully recognized phenomena as we have had the 
pleasure of submitting for your consideration. 



(143 ) 



CHAPTER XXI. 

ANIMALS IN THE SPIRIT WORLD; OR, DOES ALL 
OBJECTIVE MATTER PROJECT A SPIRIT? 

(June 23, 1897.) 

My friend, I observe upon your mind this morning 
an inquiry or birth of another question which was pro- 
duced by our erection of the bridge called Thought, 
namely: If thought is matter, then it naturally fol- 
lows that, as thought produces mind or intelligence, 
that also must be composed of matter. This produces 
the spirit which again must be composed of matter. 
And here follows in your mind the question : As the 
apple throws off a progressed atom which is attracted 
to human mind, what becomes of that part of the apple 
that contributes the over-life, spirit, or soul, of the ap- 
ple? In other words, we see that you are reaching out 
and endeavoring to solve the question, either in the 
affirmative or negative, as regards the existence or 
non-existence of the spirit of the vegetable and lower 
animals in the spirit world, and if in the affirmative, 
being matter, it must have form. 

We will begin by answering your compound ques- 
tion in the affirmative, and will endeavor to advance 
for your consideration such self-evident facts as we 
think will be as convincing to you as your comprehen- 
sion of the subject at this stage of your earth develop- 



( 144 ) • 

ment will admit. As all atomic matter had an avowed 
or special purpose in coming together in the begin- 
ning or first conception of the earth planet, it is per- 
missible for us to inquire what that purpose was, in 
order to avoid as much as possible a repetition of all 
that we formerly advanced on the question of the over- 
life or one life of objective matter. 

We will assume that our efforts to establish only the 
truth have thus far been crowned with success, and 
will advance our remarks on that hypothesis; and 
as we have met with so much success in segregating 
the question, and thereby avoiding the confusion and 
clouds that must necessarily intervene on all ques- 
tions of the truth regarding the occult, you will see the 
advantage of continuing in the same manner. 

We will therefore begin with the apple, and again 
follow its course of progress, and as with the apple, 
so it is also with the so-called lower animals and all 
natural forms of objective matter (by this we mean 
rocks, vegetables, and any thing having a form that 
was produced by the natural process — produced by 
and through the law of the earth when acting out 
the natural law of evolution). Here we wish you to 
clearly understand that we do not include — nor do 
we deny — such objects as were wrought by the artifice 
of man's ingenuity, etc. 

The purport of all matter is to seek to advance or 
to better its condition. Now, what produced this con- 
dition in the first place, — that is, the desire, — if it was 
not the presence of the lowest, the very lowest, ex- 
pression of life? Matter, you will understand in this 
instance, is only a means for an end, and assumes the 



( 145) 

form of a vehicle tot convey something. That some- 
thing is life. Xow, it does not follow that all life is 
human life; in fact, human life forms but a small 
percentage of the great over-life which some recognize 
as the over-soul, God, the Infinite One, etc. 

And when you consider, as we have before stated, 
that the great outermost surrounding sphere, the 
limit of human comprehension, — that sphere that 
embraces all that exists, — is composed of the accu- 
mulations of all kinds and qualities and the very 
essence of life, and, by the very fact of its unity into 
one final sphere, it must have an over-life of one and 
the only final object of all that is ; and as it embraces 
and flows through all, and could not be without all, 
then you will see that the smallest atom is just as 
much an integral part, in proportion to the whole 
(God), as the largest known planet. And as we 
watch and study the evolution of one atom and its 
change to something higher, and again its change to 
still higher, higher, and higher conditions, and, as all 
matter takes precisely the same course, only differing 
in degree and time, and, as we know of no other pro- 
cess, either in the spirit or the physical, by which mat- 
ter progresses, then we can but come to the conclusion 
that all life — and hence all matter — is governed by 
the one grand desire to seek the highest possible 
attainment — which is perfection. 

Xow, my friend, we are aware that at the first 
glance you take of this assertion it will somewhat 
stagger you ; but when you come to consider that the 
human spirit is produced in precisely the same way, 
please allow us to ask, Is the one more wonderful or 



(146 ) 

impractical or unreasonable than the other? For, as 
with the human matter it is with the vegetable, also 
with the mineral. You cannot deny that the apple 
and the horse have reached an advanced position from 
the volcanic period of the earth-atoms ; and it is con- 
trary to all known laws of evolution for this advanced 
matter, in the form of an apple or a horse, to go back- 
wards. Then, pray tell us, with better logic than we 
have advanced, what becomes of this matter — for you 
cannot destroy it. 

WILL THE WORLD EVENTUALLY TURN TO A GREASE-SPOT? 

It is true that this would lead to a probable surmise 
— and only a surmise — that all the matter composing 
this world would eventually pass into some other kind 
of a world, leaving nothing of this world but a grease- 
spot, so to speak. To this we will answer first : How 
do you know that it will not? Secondly, how do we 
know that the final termination of all matter is not 
to be absorbed by the great over-soul or universalism? 
Or that, when perfection is reached, it ends there? 
Of a truth, this question is so far in the infinite of 
eternity that it is absolutely beyond all human or 
spirit comprehension, and is almost analogous to 
chasing a will-o'-the-wisp, and we will insist that we 
have not only a right, but that it is perfectly proper to 
advance the truth in any manner or by any road that 
is built on known facts, — from cause to effect, — and 
that this line should never be departed from in favor 
of mere belief or baseless conjecture. Yet we are also 
free to admit that belief is oftentimes necessarv to 



(147 ) 

pave the way to knowledge, but claim that it at no 
time should be allowed to take precedence as evidence 
of facts over well-known truths. 

Now, take the question in a graduated life. If man 
possesses a spirit, where does the object called a man, 
in the sense of evolution, begin? And at what point 
does the man cease to be and the higher class of the 
lower animal begin? For instance, take the lower class 
of the African negro, the chimpanzee, the elephant, 
etc., or, in other words, take Darwin's origin of species 
and honestly put your finger on the point where the 
one leaves off and the other begins. If Darwin was 
unable to draw a positive line where not only the 
human species began or the rock or mineral ceased to 
be such, after spending his whole life in his researches, 
have we not in this one of the best evidences known to 
science to sustain our assertion that all matter pro- 
gresses to higher conditions? 

WILL WE BE ANNOYED BY FLEAS AND THINGS IN THE 
SPIRIT WORLD? 

It is true that we hear flippant remarks from time 
to time, from some of the would-be considered pro- 
found thinkers, that there would be danger of their 
being annoyed in the spirit world by fleas and things. 
Alas, we do fear they will be annoyed, especially by 
tilings that they would like to get rid of. 

We might add our own testimony to the truth of 
animal spirits, but as we started out to write this book 
on purely known facts, such as would be sustained 
by science and common sense alone, it would be break- 



( U8 ) 

ing away from our clear line of instructing you on 
only knotcn facts that bear out all that we have ad- 
vanced, and, therefore, were we to so assert, it would 
only be hearsay or belief; and if you should hunger 
for that sort of knowledge, just drop in on some of the 
churches some Sunday morning. 



( 1±9 ) 



CHAPTEE XXII. 

CLAIRVOYANCE AND CLAIRAUDIEXCE. 

(June 26, 1897.) 

Again we sense upon your mind the question, How 
do the spirits convey to mortals those truths which 
they wish to impart? And we also see upon your 
mind that, if our answer is not satisfactory, you will 
not use it. Very well, my friend, we do not wish to 
force our opinion upon you, nor have we done so as 
yet, having as little use for opinions as yourself, but 
shall continue the same course as heretofore. How- 
ever, my dear friend, we beg of you not to put yourself 
in a positive mood, or you will defeat your own object 
as well as ours. We thought we had already schooled 
you sufficiently well in that direction, and as it was 
our intention from the beginning to clothe all of our 
remarks in plain United States, and avoid as much as 
possible those antediluvian, jaw-twisting terms used 
by your metaphysicians, in order that this work might 
be read by the middle class of people comprehensively, 
we hope that you will be kind enough to still realize 
how difficult it is for us to clearly expound even this 
last question of yours, coming, as it does, so directly 
to the door of the occult. 

We will take for our subject Clairvoyance, as th: 
will give you a general idea of the whole matter. 



(150) 

First, you will remember that, as there are all manner 
of minds and organisms in a state of development on 
the earth planet, from extreme ignorance to the well- 
rounded-out philosopher, so also is it in the spirit 
world ; and when the average mortal wishes to have 
some profound question solved, he naturally seeks out 
some one highly learned in that especial line of 
thought. 

Again, you are aware that different minds are de- 
veloped or are trained in different directions; for 
instance, one man will make botany a study, another 
mineralogy, and another state-craft or the political 
and social attributes. If you should go to one of these 
philosophers, he would tell you to begin with that. 
In order to clearly and fully explain the problem of 
which you seek knowledge, you would have to read 
up a little, in order that he might make himself under- 
stood ; but as you probably had not the time or oppor- 
tunity, he would do the very best he could under the 
circumstances to make you understand. Just so is it 
in the spirit world. 

Now, go back in this little volume and again read 
our remarks on prophecy; there you will learn that 
the Old Man of the Sea had been studying the effects 
of coming events for thousands of years ; that was his 
hobby, so to speak. He had grown wise on this par- 
ticular subject, — so wise that ordinary spirits do not 
question his wisdom at all. So much for our prelude. 

The medium whose forces are adaptable for clear 
seeing attracts a spirit who is above the average of 
spirits in spirituality. This spirit selects by attrac- 
tion other spirits of less degree, generally, to assist 



( 151) 

him in his work. In so doing he accomplishes a 
double purpose ; for he teaches or gives to those lower 
spirits a part of his knowledge and assists them to 
advance, while they, being able to come into closer 
rapport with the medium, impart a portion of their 
knowledge to the medium, and benefit him and other 
mortals by convincing them of these higher truths. 

Now, the guide or spirit at the head of the band can 
put himself in harmony or communication with this 
or that wise spirit by means of thought-waves and 
gather such information as the mortal seeks ; that is, 
he can get shadows of the truth, for there is with 
spirits, as with men, an almost impassable barrier to 
a full comprehension of any matter between the 
various intelligences. The guide now impresses on the 
minds of the band that which he receives from a 
higher source; they, in turn, to the best of their 
ability, transfer these impressions to the medium's 
spirit with which they have become by practice in 
close rapport, and, in something the manner as hypno- 
tism, when the spirit of the medium (sometimes 
called his second self) throws it on the physical brain 
of the man. This is sometimes accomplished by caus- 
ing an impressional picture of the information sought 
to be cast on the spirit ether that surrounds the spirit 
of the medium, which the spirit of the medium senses 
and again reflects on the physical brain. By this 
process, you will see, the sought-for truth has had to 
be transmitted backwards through four circles of pro- 
gression, losing necessarily a little at each change, 
in almost the same ratio as knowledge was gained in 
the forward changes. This will explain to you why 



( 152 ) 

it is that very often your sittings with a sensitive are 
not at all times satisfactory, there being so many 
hands for it to pass through, so many disturbing 
influences to meet and overcome, that the only wonder 
is that you can get anything at all. 

The reasonably well-progressed spirits do not have 
to be always present with another spirit to communi- 
cate their desires. They do not have to use the audi- 
tory nerve to hear by atmospheric vibration. Not 
being physical, you will understand that they require 
none of the physical nerves to sense a truth, but, by 
a much finer imponderable matter, they are able to 
project their thoughts to a great distance, time 
cutting no figure in the transaction. 

CLAIRAUDIENCE. 

Clairaudience is accomplished in almost the same 
manner. The spirit, or second self, reflects on the 
physical brain in a sort of back-action the imponder- 
able matter of sound, which is heard on the brain only 
while the mortal, being accustomed to receiving by 
way of the auditory nerve, thinks it is his ear that 
hears. Since you, my friend, have heard clairaudient- 
ly, you will remember that it seemed as though a wee, 
tiny voice was away inside of your ear, or as though 
you were hearing through a very weak long-distance 
telephone. Why it seemed to sound thus was because 
it was being transmitted in a backward manner — that 
is, from the spirit to the brain, instead of from the 
brain to the spirit, somewhat as if you were to look 
through the small end of a spy-glass, the objects being 



( 153 ) 

enlarged or drawn near to you, while, if you reverse 
the glass, the object is reduced or far away. 

And now, hoping that our communication will not 
be hastily cast into the'waste-basket, 

We remain, 

Yours truly. 

The amanuensis will here acknowledge that the 
rebuke was well deserved, and I take it all back ; but 
must be allowed to confess that such indeed were my 
thoughts — that the query would prove a " corker." 
However, an honest confession is good for the soul, 
and " all 's well that ends well." C. H. F. 

INVESTIGATING MATERIALIZATION. 

At this point of our remarks it will be appropriate 
to allow our scribe to give you a little of his ex- 
perience while pursuing his investigations of 
materialization, by a concise report of a number of 
private sittings with two or three most excellent and 
honest mediums. 

I will begin by saying that in the early part of the 
year 1890 I was a confirmed atheist. I had read some- 
thing of spiritualism, but lacked the positive evidence 
of spirit return, or life after the so-called death. 
About this time there came a lady from the East to 
San Francisco, by the name of Mrs. Helen Fairchild, 
whom I had often heard spoken of as one of the best 
mediums for the phase of full-form materialization 
to be found in the United States ; so I decided to have 
a private circle with her, for in case I found it only a 
fake, there would be only the medium and myself to 



( 155 ) 

do the laughing act. I found she did not have to go 
into the cabinet at all, but remained out in the room 
all the time, although at the time she was under the 
control of an Indian woman by the name of Forest 
Queen. When the seance began, Queen gave me the 
names of six or eight people that I had not thought of 
for forty years, — some of them boys that I had not 
seen since I was ten years old, — and gave me an exact 
description of them. This was before any spooks 
came out. Well, to say it staggered me, is the solid 
fact. Then something touched me on the knee. I 
looked down, and, as I looked, a bright spot came on 
the floor at my feet and began to rise. I saw it was a 
man, and no mistake, with long gray beard. As his 
face came opposite to mine, he began to speak, when 
1 felt his warm breath strike my face. I could see the 
carpet very plainly. When he got through growing, 
I found he was a man about six feet high and ap- 
parently fifty-five years old, who gave the name of 
Doctor Eush, and claimed to be the medium's guide. 

Well, I will admit that, as this was my first point- 
blank evidence of a genuine ghost, that I was knocked 
out the first round. I was not in the least nervous or 
frightened, but talked to him as natural as you 
please; but I mean by "knocked out" that I was 
perfectly satisfied that there was no shenanigan, and 
that I was looking at a full-fledged ghost. 

Well, in a few minutes the Doctor retired, when a 
very handsome young lady came out and gave the 
name of Sylvia, stating that she was my guardian 
angel, etc. I listened to her, and was as polite as a 
French dancing-master, when suddenly she kissed me 



( 156 ) 

on the cheek. That did settle it ! Then she said she 
would have to go to recover strength. I did not blame 
her, for that kiss was too much for the first dose — and 
I a stranger and a greenhorn. I said to myself: 
" Young lady, you are awful good-looking ; but if you 
think you can play it on this old rounder and get away 
with the goods, you will be a heap sight smarter than I 
am willing to give you credit for." The fact is, I did 
not believe that she was a ghost at all, you see. That 
kiss was the pure quill, and she could not fool the old 
man just a little bit; he had been there before — or he 
thought he had. 

Then she began to settle down — through the floor, 
apparently — until she disappeared entirely. Well, 
there I was flabbergasted again, and had to take it all 
back; for I knew that no human could go down 
through that floor without a trap, and I, being a 
builder and able to see the carpet at my feet, knew 
there was none there. After several other spirits had 
come and gone, the seance ended. 

Well, reader, as that was my first experience, I am 
willing that you shall say " Chump ! " for when I 
came away I was half inclined to think so myself. 
Still, I had seen either too much or too little, and 
made up my mind to see it out and learn the truth if 
it took all summer and I had to go broke. Just so, 
just so. I found that it did take six months and just 
one thousand dollars ; and not one dollar of it would 
I recall and be without the lesson and the experience. 

I will now give you one of the most remarkable 
seances that I have ever witnessed. It was the slow 
building up of the spirit Sylvia in a strictly private 



( 157 ) 

seance. The rooms were a pair of double parlors, 
about twelve by fourteen feet square, with six-foot 
sliding-doors between them. The cabinet was in the 
front parlor, and cut no figure in the seance whatever. 
On one side of the sliding-doors by the wall was a 
small coal-oil lamp. This was covered by a piece of 
red tissue-paper to take the sharp glare off the light, 
and was about six feet up from the floor. Under this 
light and at the jamb of the door I took my seat, and 
on the opposite side of the door, about seven feet 
away, the medium seated herself, under control of 
Queen. The light was just strong enough to see 
easily all the objects in both rooms. After sitting for 
about five minutes, I noticed, about eighteen inches 
from the medium's side, a faint light, barely discerni- 
ble, and about six inches wide and five feet high. I 
kept my eye on it, and saw that it was getting lighter, 
until it had the appearance of the dawn of daylight, 
though clear, and I could see through it. At the ex- 
piration of a couple of minutes it began to take on a 
denser form, until it had the appearance of a round 
column of chalk turned true in a lathe. I kept up a 
conversation with Queen, but kept my eye on the 
column, when it deliberately and slowly widened out 
at the bottom until it took the form of a spirit draped 
in white, the drapery extending up to and around 
over where the head ought to have been, but I could 
see no head ; then, in a flash, came the eyes, nose and 
mouth, but no hair; then, while I am writing, it came 
— the beautiful black curls — when I recognized her as 
Sylvia. She stepped over to me and said she thought 
she would show me how she made herself up. She 



( 159 ) 

then stepped away to the right about three feet, when 
she slowly sank through the floor. In less than a 
minute she rose out of the floor in another place, came 
over to me and spoke to me, when she sank again to 
the left. This performance was repeated five or six 
times, and occupied about twenty minutes. Skeptics 
and know-it-alls will here note that the cabinet played 
no part in it, nor was the medium out of my sight for 
a single minute. 

So much by way of my initiation. I will now give 
you an account of my marriage with the spirit Sylvia. 
We had been expecting to secure conditions for this 
event for several weeks, and finally the day was fixed 
upon. I took the precaution to take along my own 
bottle of wine, as they said they would be able to 
drink our health. On the day we opened the seance, 
out came Sylvia, and my sister Ehoda, as the best 
lady, and Charley H. Foster, the old medium who had 
passed the Rubicon some ten or fifteen years before. 
He was my second cousin and claimed to be my con- 
trol and was to act as my best man. Then came 
Ptolemy Fhiladelphus, Sylvia's father, who claimed 
to be my guide ; then Forest Queen. We all stood up 
in a semicircle, and Ptolemy began the wedding cere- 
mony. After getting about half through he broke 
down, and had to wait about two minutes, when he 
finished; then they all retired, when Ptolemy came 
out alone and sat down in a chair by my side at a 
small deal table upon which I had placed some wine, 
cake, and a box of cigars. He asked me what it was 
I had on the table. I told him it was some wine and 
cake to entertain my friends with, and invited him to 



( 160 ) 

partake. " Certainly I will," he replied. I picked up 
the bottle of wine to pour it in a glass, when Ptolemy 
began to smile. I wondered what he saw to laugh at, 
Tvhen I noticed that, in my anxiety to see him drink 
the wine, I had forgotten to draw the cork. However, 
1 filled a glass for him, but he stood looking at me, and 
finally asked me if I was not going to join him. I had 
again forgotten myself. The fact was, I will own up, 
I was just a trifle rattled. 

Well, he clinked glasses with me, and, you may 
depend upon it, I watched that glass of his, rattled or 
not rattled; and he certainly swallowed all of the 
wine. I had also given him a piece of the cake, which 
I had a close eye on, and I noticed that, while he 
placed the cake to his mouth, he did not take any of 
the cake into his mouth. So I asked the reason. He 
replied that, while it was not difficult to dematerialize 
a fluid, he found he could not so readily dematerialize 
a solid ; but he gave me a long spiritual toast, which I 
returned to the best of my poor ability. 

He then retired to the cabinet, and Sylvia and 
Khoda came out and sat one on each side of me, with a 
glass of wine. But I chided them that they were not 
drinking the wine, but only pretending to. Sylvia 
replied : " You know we do not drink wine. It is 
only to please you." After they had sat about ten 
minutes they arose, and Sylvia retired within the 
cabinet, while Ehoda took my hand and began to ap- 
parently sink through the floor, talking as she went, 
1 had a fair grip on her hand and wondered what 
would become of her hand, for I intended to hang on to 
it like grim death to a dead nigger. When only her 



( 161 ) 

hand was left, it melted into nothing, and there was 
my hand, partly closed. I was looking at her hand for 
all that I was worth. It just simply turned to noth- 
ing. Then Charley Foster came out and took a glass 
of wine and a cigar ; then old man Massasoit, who is 
my cabinet spirit, came out and took a cigar. In fact, 
there were eleven spirits came out, seven of whom 
each drank a glass of wine ; and when the seance was 
over, I noticed there was about one-fourth of the wine 
left. 

It was quite a common occurrence with me to pre- 
sent the spirit Sylvia with a large bouquet of flowers, 
and frequently she would dematerialize in front of 
fifteen or twenty people, flowers and all, and no traces 
of the flowers could afterwards be found. I have often 
stood within twelve inches of her when she would 
begin to sink down, holding the flowers in her hand. 
Y^hen she would be about three feet above the floor, 
she and the flowers would vanish to apparent nothing- 
ness. 

During these seances with Mrs. Fairchild, Ptolemy 
suggested that he be allowed to give me a series of 
writing seances, to which I consented. It was done 
in this manner : The medium procured a new blank 
tablet, about eight by ten inches. This I carefully 
inspected before every seance. This blank-book was 
then laid on a chair in the cabinet, and Mrs. F. — under 
control of Queen, of course — would take her seat by 
me in the room, and we would indulge in an ordinary 
conversation. Sometimes it would be such light and 
frivolous gossip as women usually like to while away 
the time with. 



(162 ) 

I was always careful to observe that neither Queen 
nor any of the other spirits who called on me could or 
would enter into an explanation of the real practical 
law governing the phenomena of materialization ; that 
is, their answers were always vague and unsatisfac- 
tory, in a practical or scientific sense. I found it the 
same with C. V. Miller and all others whom I ques- 
tioned on the matter, and it is my candid opinion that 
they are as ignorant of the laws governing the phenom- 
ena as the rest of the rank and file of spiritualists. 
Mrs. Fairchild once said to me, in a burst of confi- 
dence : " Mr. Foster, sometimes when I am alone I 
often wonder to myself, can it really be true that these 
forms that come into my room are indeed those who 
we think are dead? I know that I ought to be the 
last one in the world to hold such thoughts, after 
fifteen years of experience; yet I sometimes cannot 
help it, it does seem so impossible." 

But this is wandering from our subject. During 
the writing seance, which would last about one hour, 
there would sometimes come out of the cabinet one 
or two spirits to entertain me and break the monot- 
ony. At the end of the hour we would take the book 
out and read it, and it would prove quite interesting. 
I found that at every seance they would write about 
five or six hundred words with a lead pencil. These 
writings consisted of a description of Ptolemy's coro- 
nation and reign in Egypt, and will be found attached 
to this volume. After I had had about twenty sittings, 
Ptolemy concluded to dispense with the writings, stat- 
ing that he would finish them at some future time, 
through my own forces ; and I presume that the birth 



(163 ) 

of this volume on Occult Science is the fulfillment of 
that promise, — for you will allow me to assert one 
thing positively, and that is, that it is not the off- 
spring of my intelligence, several truths being ad- 
vanced in this book which were contrary to my 
convictions, and until they entered into an explana- 
tion of materialization on the automaton and hypno- 
tism principles, I was in the same mystified condition 
as all other writers on that phenomenon, and I was 
puzzled to account for it in any rational manner, after 
spending thirteen hundred dollars in the investigation 
of materialization alone. As was also the cause of 
the declination of the earth's axis, that which thinks 
thoughts, etc. 

I will now give you a description of a few remark- 
able seances which I had with C. V. Miller, of San 
Francisco. But allow me first to state that I had been 
accustomed to receive an occasional spirit letter from 
Ptolemy, Sylvia, Chas. Foster, Massasoit, Khoda, and 
others of my band, through Mrs. Fairchild's forces 
from the city of Denver, Colorado, and this was before 
1 was acquainted with Mr. Miller. In one of these 
letters from Ptolemy he stated to me that away out in 
the Pacific Ocean there was an island, etc. I will here 
include an article that I wrote at the time for the 
Progressive Thinker and let it speak for itself. 



( 164) 

" PHENOMENAL— SOME CUBIOUS MANI- 
FESTATIONS. 

" A STRANGE ISLAND AND A COPPER-COLORED RACE. 

*'-' Wonderful manifestations at a materializing seance 
— A peculiar stone brought from an island — A 
bracelet from a mummy casket — Materialized form 
illuminated. 

" To the Editor : A short time ago I noticed an 
article in your paper, evidently from an investigator 
like myself into the various phases of spirit communi- 
cation, inquiring why, when you ask a question of a 
spirit, if you want ' yes ' you get ' yes/ and ' no ' 
when you want ' no.' Now, while I admit that my 
experience has been somewhat similar when investi- 
gating the phases generally understood as clair- 
voyant, or trance mediums, or dark circles, I find it 
altogether different with a good materializing medium 
in a strong light, when the investigator can bring to 
bear on the truth of the question, at one and the same 
time, at least four out of his five or six senses ; and, if 
you, Mr. Editor, will kindly give to the many readers 
of The Progressive Thinker the following article (pro- 
vided it is not too long) , they will see that ' yes ' and 
6 no ' cut no figure. Said article embraces a series 
of three or four of the most remarkable materializing 
seances that I have ever read about, and, knowing it 
will tax the credulity of even old i stagers,' I shall 
affix my affidavit to the same. 

" Eight months ago I received a written communi- 
cation from two members of my band of spirits, 



( 165 ) 

through the forces of Mrs. Helen Fairchild, then 
located in Denver, Colorado, telling me that far in 
the Pacific Ocean there was an island inhabited by a 
copper-colored race of people, who were very medium- 
istic and of a kind and gentle disposition. These 
people were governed by an old king who was over a 
hundred years old ; that in the possession of this king- 
were a pair of stones of great value, which the spirits 
wished to secure for their temple, as the island and its 
people were soon to be destroyed by a tidal wave. 
Well, I placed the letter in my drawer and told no one 
or thought but little about it. Three months ago I 
heard of Mr. C. Y. Miller, of San Francisco, as being 
a remarkable materializing medium, and, as has been 
my custom for the last three or four years, I went to 
him to satisfy myself. I gave him no information as 
to myself or even the name of my spirit friends. At 
the third sitting there came out of the cabinet a spirit 
who seemed to be an Indian and placed in my hand a 
peculiar stone. I will give here the conversation that 
took place between us : — 

" Q. ' Where did you get this stone? ' 

"A. i I brought it from an island far in the Pacific 
Ocean.' 

" Q. ' Where did you come from? ' 

"A. ' I came from that island.' 

" Q. ' Tell me something about that stone.' 

"A. < You will soon be given another and some- 
thing else.' 

" Q. ' Do you mean to tell me that this is one of 
the two stones that I have already been told of? ' 

"A. 'It is.' 



(166) 

" Q. ' What else can you tell me of them? ' 
"A. i That is all I was instructed to say.' 
" When he immediately dematerialized at my feet. 
" One week after that, old Chief Massasoit, an In- 
dian that has been with me for seven years, and 
another Indian, called ' War Cloud,' came out of the 
cabinet together, and placed in my hands a curious 
bracelet composed of twenty-one beads, about three 
eighths of an inch in diameter. Eighteen of these 
beads were covered with an engraved pattern of 
Egyptian scroll-work and all highly perfumed with a 
peculiar odor that always accompanies my spirit 
Sylvia, daughter of Ptolemy Philadelphus. He told 
me he got it out of a mummy casket in an Egyptian 
tomb. 

" In a few days after receiving the island stone, I 
heard of a good psychologist in Oakland by the name 
of Little. I went and had a sitting with him (mind, 
we had never before met) . I let him go on for a while, 
and found that he did possess good powers. I then took 
from my pocket the stone and gave it to him to read. 
He immediately answered : ' This stone takes me 
away out in the Pacific Ocean, a little south of west — 
to a little pear-shaped island. This island is the top of 
a range of mountains that went down with Atlantis. 1 
I could get no more from him. About a month after 
this, I, with nine others, had a private sitting with 
Miller, when the spirit son of one of the gentlemen 
present came out side by side with the medium and 
posed before a snap-shot kodak for two different 
pictures. These pictures I have seen, and the gentle- 
man, his wife, and daughter all pronounce it a 



(168) 

wonderful likeness. At this seance old Massasoit 
came out. The gentleman gave him a cigar and re- 
quested him to light and smoke it. He retired to the 
cabinet, and in a moment returned with the cigar fully 
lighted, and stayed for five minutes, smoking away 
like an old stager. At this same seance my friend 
Sylvia came out and gave to me the other stone, weigh- 
ing about one pound, with private instructions re- 
garding it. 

" One week previous to this seance, I had a strictly 
private seance with Miller, when Sylvia came out and 
said she was going to stay half an hour. Well, I have 
seen over five thousand single cases of full-form 
materialization and many illuminated ones, but this 
spirit far overtopped any illumination that I ever be- 
fore beheld. Not only was the lace shawl illuminated, 
but, seemingly, all of her under garments and around 
the flesh of her neck, for half an inch above the collar 
of her dress, the flesh itself was fully illuminated, not 
in spots, but of one uniform brightness. She requested 
me to call in the landlady to see her. After sitting 
for -about ten minutes, I opened the hall door and a 
full flood of light shone on the spirit, while she sat 
there as unconcerned as you please. She then gathered 
up a double handful of her garments and placed them 
in my hands. Well, the only way I can describe it is 
that it seemed as, though I was holding onto the corner 
of a rain cloud with the sun shining behind it. At the 
same seance Aunt Betsy came out, an old colored 
lady, and one of the controls. After sitting with us 
about fifteen minutes, and drinking a glass of wine, 
she arose and stood about three feet from the cabinet 



( 169 ) 

in a strong light and turned into old Massasoit. The 
transformation occupied about two minutes, when he 
came and talked to us for about five minutes. By the 
way, I forgot to mention that Sylvia stayed out with 
us fully half an hour. 

" I then made arrangements with Dr. Johnson, an 
amateur photographer, to bring his kodak and try for 
a snap-shot picture of the spirit Sylvia. Arrange- 
ments were made for eight persons in the circle, and 
it was a perfect success, as she came and posed for 
three different pictures. A copy of each I send you 
with this communication. 

" Mr. Miller has, by invitation, given a number of 
seances in private residences where I was present, 
and always sits outside of the cabinet for the first half 
hour, when from twenty to thirty forms will come, 
and most of them give the full name, and with the 
light always strong enough to plainly see him and the 
cabinet, which explodes the trap-door and confederate 
business, as there is no opening near the cabinet, and 1 
can cheerfully recommend him to any one, if he should 
visit any of your Eastern cities, as a genuine, honest 
medium. C. H. Foster. 

"Alameda, Cal. 

" Subscribed and sworn to before me this twenty- 
sixth day of December, 1894. 

[seal.] James B. Barber, 

" Notary Public." 

But I have again gone ahead of my story; for I 
should have informed you that, when Mrs. Fairchild 
was about to depart from San Francisco, my spirit 



(170 ) 

friends and myself agreed on a private signal to be 
kept between us, and to be divulged to no one what- 
ever. As I do not intend that this work shall be pub- 
lished until I shall have crossed the Great Divide, I 
will here state what that signal was : Each of my five 
principal spirits, in the order that I have enumerated 
them above, were, in their conversation, or any other 
convenient way suitable to the time or place, to weave 
in their conversation to me their number as we had 
agreed upon. For instance, if Sylvia were to come 
to me through some other medium, she, in talking to 
me, would use the word or figure two, twice, or second, 
ae that was her number ( such as, " I have twice tried 
to convince you " ) . It was understood that if I called 
for that test and it was not given, then I could depend 
upon it that it was not she, but some other spirit 
personating her. This, she assured me, was a common 
occurrence, and could be carried out so successfully 
that I could not tell the difference. 

Well, at my first sitting with Mr. Miller, Sylvia 
came out and gave the test, although she was made up 
differently, which experience had taught me was noth- 
ing unusual, as each medium and their band use these 
laws to suit their own conditions, the same as two 
mechanics will often pursue opposite courses to ac- 
complish the same end. 

I will now give you a description of a couple of 
seances I had with, the Campbell Brothers, in which 
I received two oil paintings, one of Sylvia and one of 
Ptolemy, in size seven by eleven inches. Upon taking 
my seat at a small deal table in a room about eight by 
ten feet with a mantel in it, on which mantel was 
placed a large family lamp fully illuminated, and so 



(172) 

kept, the medium gave me a pair of slates about eight 
by twelve inches and a piece of dry sized artist canvas 
and requested me to put the canvas between the slates. 
Tie then snapped a rubber band on them and placed 
a small saucer of various colors of paint on the slates 
and gave them to me to hold, and then began to walk 
the floor. In a few minutes he was controlled by 
Sylvia, who informed me if I would hold my hands 
together she would give me her ring, and when I came 
the next night to get her father's picture I should 
bring her a ring in exchange, and the first time we met 
at any other medium's seance she would show me the 
ring to convince me it was she. I placed my hands 
together as requested, when she placed in them a ring 
containing two opals and two garnets (the signal) as 
a setting. In twenty minutes from the time of closing 
the slates, the oil painting was finished, a picture that 
professional artists tell me would take them ten hours 
at least to accomplish. I touched it and found it 
perfectly wet, and had to leave it with him for a couple 
of days to dry. The next day I bought a small 
diamond ring of a peculiar make, one that I could 
easily recognize in a seance room at any time. When 
I took my seat for Ptolemy's picture, I asked her how 
I Avas to give her the ring. She replied : " O, just place 
it on the slates and hold them under the table for a 
moment." I did so, and in a moment raps came. I 
withdrew the slates, and the ring was gone. Now, 
mind, all this time the medium" was walking up and 
down the floor in the full light of the lamp, and never 
came near the table. In twenty minutes by my watch, 
the picture was finished. For those two pictures I 
paid fifty dollars. 



(174 ) 

And now the sequel. About two weeks after this 
I saw in the paper that the Keverend Jenny More, 
from Chicago, was giving seances in the city ; so, with- 
out any warning to any one, I attended a seance. 
Every one in the room, including the medium, some 
fifteen people, were strangers to me. I did not give 
my name, but took my seat with the rest. In about 
half an hour after the seance had begun, the medium 
said there was a spirit that came to the old gentleman 
with the gray beard, meaning myself, and she gave the 
name of Sylvia. I replied, " Yes ; I know a spirit by 
that name," when Sylvia presented herself at the 
aperture in the cabinet (this medium does not give 
full-form materialization — only the bust). I said to 
the spirit, " If you are my Sylvia, the last time we met 
there was a transaction between us whereby you 
agreed to give me the evidence that it was you." She 
smiled, raised her hand, and drew from her finger a 
ring precisely like the one I had given her. Then she 
replaced the ring, looked at me and smiled, and again 
withdrew the ring and replaced it — twice — the signal! 
Who could doubt it? 

While giving my own experience, it will be in order 
to say to you that when I first made the acquaintance 
of my spirit friends, Ptolemy gave me his object in 
returning to earth, which, he claimed, was for the 
purpose of fulfilling certain prophecies of Daniel, 
stating what they were, and asked my co-operation, 
which I agreed to give him, conditionally. One of 
these conditions was that, as they (the spirits) 
claimed that I possessed peculiar mediumistic powers 
which they wished to develop for their purposes (the 



(175 ) 

old, old cry, generally used to induce you to spend 
your money with their medium through your creduli- 
ty),! agreed that if they would give me unmistakable 
evidence that I possessed such forces, by coming to my 
room in the city of Alameda and knock a book from 
off the table at which I generally sat reading of an 
evening, or hit me a blow that I would undoubtedly 
feel, or write or mark on the slates when I was sitting 
for development, and thereby prove to me the truth 
of their assertion, then I would continue my sittings 
for several years, — provided that they would give 
me some evidence from time to time that they were 
still trying to accomplish their desires. 

They told me that I must be prepared to wait ; that 
they could not tell me how long it would take, but 
must make patience, perseverance, and fidelity my 
watchword. Well, in about one year or so — I do not 
remember exactly — I got slate-writing once only. I 
had been sitting with Fred Evans for about three 
weeks a year before. His guide, John Gray, advised 
me to pay his medium five dollars for a pair of mag- 
netized slates, as it would assist my development, and 
while I took no stock in the assertion, still, to please 
them, I bought the slates, which cost Mr. Evans the 
magnificent sum of ten cents. " Chump again/' I hear 
you say. Yes; but I was seeking positive evidence, 
not belief, as you shall see, and I got it. At the same 
time I bought two slates of the same size from a 
stationery-store in Alameda. Now, I made up my 
mind that I would first sit a month with Evans's 
slates, then the alternate month with the common 
slates. About a year afterwards I went into the cabi- 



(176) 

net on my usual day, at 7 :30 a.m., with the common 
slates. In a half-hour I came ont, when for the first 
time, I noticed that both sides — i. e. outsides — of the 
slates were scratched all over. I opened the slates 
and fonnd seven names in different handwritings. 
Fonr of the names were Mary, Sofa, Charley, and Wil- 
ber ; the other three were only two thirds written, so I 
could not make them out. 

And now for those wonderful magnetized slates. 
When I went to place my slates in the bureau drawer 
with Mr. Evans's slates, I saw that his were also 
covered on the outside with scratches, and when I 
opened them nothing but scratches met my eye. And 
thus, by patience, I secured known evidence in lieu 
of belief. This was some four or five years ago, this 
being June, 1897. I always kept those slates, and do 
now, as clean as soap and water will make them, but 
have had no writing since, except an occasional 
scratch. Right here, to be just to my band, I will say 
that they warned me at the beginning not to expect 
manifestations while they were developing my forces ; 
for to give the manifestations they would have to stop 
or arrest the conditions for development while doing 
so, and it had the tendency to throw them back in 
their work. 

Some six months after that I had an unmistakable 
clairvoyant sight of the U. S. steamer Charleston and 
the Esmeralda while they were in Acapulco harbor, 
Mexico. On another occasion I was sitting in the 
room of a friend's house in a half-dreamy state while 
the lady and her daughter and son-in-law were 
engaged in a game of cards, when I spoke to them in 



(177) 

this manner : " I see a large amphitheater. It seems 
to be excavated out of the side of a hill, and is fifty 
feet wide and a hundred feet deep, and has about 
thirty tiers of seats, all packed full of Chinamen. 
Their faces are about the size of a five-cent piece, yet 
I see them as plainly as though they were full size. 
This pit is in the shape of a horseshoe, with the heel 
towards me. Xow, at one heel of the pit I see a tall 
tower-like structure, like a Chinese pagoda. Now 
there comes in front of the tower a coflin covered with 
a black cloth which hangs to the ground. At the head 
of the coflin stands a beautiful white lady, evidently 
a spirit. She reaches over and lifts the black cloth, 
and I see a skeleton in the coflin. The skeleton now 
sits up in the coflin, and the whole scene is gradually 
melting away." 

Two weeks after this the news came from China 
that the Yellow Eiver had overflowed, and that twenty 
thousand Chinamen were drowned. Several months 
after this I was sitting in the cabinet when I noticed 
that the forces were unusually strong, lights coming 
and going continually. I thought, " Now, they are 
going to materialize." While looking very intently, 
there came a voice within six inches of my face say- 
ing : " How do you do, my beloved earth com- 
panion? " loud enough to be heard plainly all over a 
twelve-foot room. Well, the hair of my head rose up 
on end and the goose-flesh was all over me, not from 
fright, but from complete astonishment, and when T 
got in that condition, of course the forces vanished. 
x\t another time I had them grab me by the shoulders 
and almost push me off my feet. They took me first 



(178) 

by the shoulders, with a pressure of almost ten 
pounds, then by the elbow, then by the wrist, then 
shift to the other arm and repeat, then place a hand 
between my shoulders and almost push me off my feet. 
I have had lights roll around the cabinet, and several 
times they have reached out of the cabinet and touched 
my arm as I passed it. All these phenomena have 
occurred when I was least expecting them. So, you 
see, my experience proves all of these facts — to me at 
least — as I got them through my own forces, and, so 
far, the band have kept their word. 

I shall offer no apology for all this rigma- 
role about my own experience; for I really think that 
it is and ought to be a part of this book, and while I 
am not a professional medium, expecting no pecuniary 
gain from these forces or from these writings, yet I 
presume that there are many others who find it hard 
to distinguish between the real and the false, and 
find it hard to settle the question, If a man dies, shall 
he live again? Spiritualists will answer you in the 
affirmative, while I will answer you in the negative, 
until you can prove to me, at least, that death is 
superior to life. For if there is no death, which I 
affirm, then how can a man die? You see, that little 
word " if " represents another of those false gods of 
which this work treats, and leads you to erroneously 
presuppose a part of your question in the affirmative, 
which starts you on the wrong road, where you will 
find yourself groping in the dark. 

CONSISTENCY, THOU ART A JEWEL ! 

How can the spiritualist consistently teach that 
their phenomena prove that there is no death; and 



(179) 

yet they all claim to answer Job's question in the 
affirmative? 

If you turn into a snake, can you eat frogs? Would 
it not be advisable and strictly scientific to prove that 
you can turn to a snake before taking up the question 
of what you will need for a diet? Is it any very great 
wonder that the people become mystified, when nearly 
all of your best writers keep constantly borrowing 
these old exploded ideas, more perhaps for the purpose 
of using up printer's ink than for anything else — 
such as death, inanimation, vacuum, cold, darkness, 
etc. 



( 181 ) 



CHAPTEK XXIII. 

A PARODY ON COMMON SENSE. 

It appears to us that this work would lack comple- 
tion without a trifle of the burlesque on some of the 
absurdities of human opinion regarding the actuality 
and condition of the spirit world. How common it is 
to pick up almost any spiritual paper and find therein 
the scoffs, slurs, taunts, and uncalled-for insinuations 
of the superstitions and absurdities of other creeds! 
Does it ever strike the writer of such cheap literature 
that it might be just barely possible that the house in 
which he himself lived had more or less glass in its 
construction? 

How frequently we hear such profound logic as 
this: that there are no animals in the spirit world, 
and that therefore we will not be pestered with fleas 
and things, particularly rattlesnakes and other 
poisonous objects. These same wise ones, in almost 
the same breath, tell us that coming events cast their 
shadows before, and that we build our own atmos- 
phere, or aura, in this world, whiclrfollows us into the 
next. Perhaps this may account for their dread of 
the wrath to come. And yet these very same writers 
will tell us of the beautiful trees, flowers, fruit, rivers, 
meadows, birds of rare plumage, jewels, buildings, 
cities, etc. They also acknowledge that all this is pro- 



(182) 

duced in spirit from the spirit substance that perme- 
ates every object and entity. 

Let us advance a step further, and apply a little 
common sense and inquire, Are sour grapes an entity 
or an object? or the rattlesnakes, the gold-fish, the 
sheep for your spirit meadow — for what is a meadow 
without sheep? — the crooked tree? Or are your 
beautiful spirit groves composed of those perfect trees 
whose trunks are perfectly straight, the limbs of just 
such a proportional length, every leaf of an exact 
size and placed precisely such a distance apart? 
Would this not be as monotonous and as absurd as 
you charge to the Christian idea of a personal God, 
seated on a golden throne, with all his chosen ones 
seated around on silver camp-stools, singing " Glory 
hallelujah, glory hallelujah," for all time? Or will 
you tell us that the sour grapes, fleas, etc., have not 
yet reached that stage of perfection that entitles them 
to a free ticket into the spirit world, but that they 
must be relegated to the mills of the gods, again to 
be ground over? And if this be the law of the vegeta- 
ble and the brute, where do you find your line of de- 
marcation or consistency in denying this same privi- 
lege to the leper, the horse- thief , the murderer, etc. ? 

Why not also display the same wisdom and relegate 
these and also* the chimpanzee, the Lilliputian Afri- 
can? And while we are so engaged, let us include 
those horrible elementals, such as half horse and half 
man, and bar out all that does not just exactly come 
up to our idea or imagination, or else go the whole hog 
and fall back on our forefathers' ideas and beliefs, and 
elect a plurality of gods ; then every one can build a 
god and a spirit world to suit himself. 



( 183 ) 



CHAPTEE XXIV. 

BIRTHMARKS AND OTHER MALFORMATIONS. 

If all objective formation was caused by the life in 
the atom seeking an opportunity to advance to a 
higher condition, then it stands to reason that all 
objects were formed by one and the same primary law. 
This being the case, it will naturally follow that the 
shape, position, or condition of the object will cut no 
figure as regards the spirit of an object — i. e. all ob- 
jects, while in a state of development, are at the same 
time throwing off a spirit atmosphere composed of 
such advanced atoms as can no longer find a physical 
or earth condition suitable for their use. Yet this at- 
mosphere still continues to surround and accompany 
the object, receiving from time to time additional pro- 
gressed atoms from the object. Out of this atmos- 
phere, as we have before stated, is produced a spirit. 

Now, all spirits, like all objects, are, primarily 
speaking, produced by precisely the same funda- 
mental law, whether it be animal, vegetable, mineral, 
fire, or any other thing. This law follows the object 
until it is again changed. As the perfume represents 
the spirit of the apple, and is projected on the human 
brain in the shape of vibratory waves of matter, so 
also does a large fire, a snake, a strawberry, etc., pro- 
duce a spirit. 



( 184) 

We will first call your attention to a fact which we 
have not before had occasion to mention, in regard 
to like attracting like, or the affinity that particular 
kinds of atoms have for one another or in harmony 
with each other. In this instance it will be advisable 
for us to state that while certain organisms have a 
close affinity for each other, there are periods of time, 
— perhaps a few minutes, days, months, — ah! and 
even years, — when some member of your band and 
your own spirit are not in perfect harmony ; and by 
this same law of positive and negative, there are again 
periods of time when the reverse is the case, and you 
find your sympathetic attraction in such perfect har- 
mony that you hardly know whether you are spirit or 
mortal. 

Now, consider the mother, — in this exceedingly 
high-strung or sympathetic condition, when a sudden 
fire bursts upon her optic nerve. Here you find vast 
quantities of vibratory waves of the spirit of the fire 
rushing upon the optic nerve with inconceivable ra- 
pidity. This matter the brain cannot receive, classify, 
and refine as fast as it is forced upon it. The result 
is that a part of it is thrown off into the spirit atmos- 
phere of the mother before it is properly refined. The 
spirit cannot receive it in that condition, and it is 
thrown back or rebounds on that part of the physical 
body that is at that instant in the most receptive con- 
dition to receive it, which is the foetus. The mother 
throws up her hands before her face in her endeavor 
to ward off the surplus waves, her left hand being 
nearest the heart and her negative side; her spirit 
being at the same time in a very receptive mood with 



( 185 ) 

the fire spirit, and also in perfect harmony with the 
foetus, the overplus of the matter which was thrown 
back by her atmosphere is precipitated on the left 
side of the face of the child in the red atoms of the fire 
spirit. Had the brain cells of color been in a more 
passive mood, — i. e. not so highly strung at the mo- 
ment, — they could have received just so much of the 
wave of the fire spirit as the cell was capable of slowly 
refining into organized thought and intelligence, and 
no abnormal effect would have occurred. This same 
mother might have passed a dozen fires during preg- 
nancy, when her surrounding atmosphere was in a 
tranquil state at the moment and not in attune with 
the fire or snake spirit, and in this state no evil effect 
would have resulted. 

Again, you will find by careful inquiry that either 
the mother or the marked child, or, what is more 
likely to be the case, both the mother and the child, 
are what is generally termed sensitives to these spirit 
laws. Take the case of our amanuensis, O. H. Foster. 
Though born in 1837, long before the advent of your 
so-called modern spiritualism, yet his mother was a 
medium and possessed good healing powers, he being 
her eleventh child. We will here give the mother's 
version of the affair. It was on an afternoon that she, 
feeling somewhat tired, being a farmer's wife, was 
lying on a bed which was placed beside an open win- 
dow. Her right side was close to the window. Some 
three or four feet below the window-sill was a shed 
roof, and from this roof sprang a black cat onto the 
window-sill. As you are aware, a cat jumps almost 
perpendicularly. All she saw was something blade 



( 186 ) 

suddenly appear before her eyes. She threw her left 
hand across her breast and grabbed her right arm 
(that being nearest to the cat) half way between the 
elbow and her shoulder. She felt a queer shock in the 
arm, and instantly knew she had marked her child. 

Some eighteen years afterwards, in trying to ex- 
plain it to the boy how she knew it, she said she could 
not explain the feeling — that she just knew it; and as 
she told her sister-in-law at the time, so it proved. 
When the child was born, it had dark brown hair on 
the head, but on the right arm, between the elbow and 
shoulder, was a black or brown mark on the skin, like 
a bright-colored negro, or, the same color as the many 
moles you frequently see on people's faces or hands. 
This mark was covered with long black hair. The 
mark at his present age (sixty years )is about eight 
inches long and four inches broad, and is covered with 
black hair, slightly gray ; and, running down the mid- 
dle of this mark, or what might be called its back, is 
a streak of dandruff about one inch broad. Many 
times during his boyhood he would try to scrape this 
dirty-looking scurf off ; and as he found it always be- 
came very sore afterwards, he soon learned to let 
it alone, as it never troubled him when he did so. 

We will now endeavor to call your attention to a 
few of the facts which this case establishes. First, the 
optic nerve received a sudden overwhelming flow of 
black color, and, being unable to properly receive it, 
threw it back on the child. Second, the presence of 
the dandruff, similar in appearance to that which is 
found on a cat's back, would show that the atoms of 
matter which surround the cat and formed its spirit 



( 188 ) 

atmosphere (similar to the fragranoe of the apple), 
coming into sudden harmony with the optic nerve, 
and thence thrown hurriedly on the human atmos- 
phere before the brain had time to carefully refine it, 
was, of course, rejected and thrown back on the child. 
It also shows that, while the spirit of the atoms form- 
ing the dandruff had passed or advanced beyond the 
physical body of the cat, yet it was still matter. But 
as nature's law of advance or evolution is inexorable, 
it must pass through the human brain in an ordinary 
manner, there to become refined into thought and in- 
telligence before it can become a part of the human 
atmosphere. 

Another fact : This dandruff which was precipitated 
on the human arm has been watched by a human eye 
for years, and thus was impinged on the brain in an 
ordinary manner when it became thought and was 
advanced in a regular form into the human atmos- 
phere. 

A strawberry mark is produced in a somewhat 
similar manner. The brain is in a high-strung, or 
sensitive, condition, the spirit of the strawberry 
comes in direct contact with the brain in such an over- 
whelming wave that the brain is in a manner over- 
loaded, and it is thrown back on the child in the same 
way. 

Another point we think will help to clear your mind 
on this subject is that it is a well-known fact that 
there are many individuals who can come in contact 
with a vicious dog or a venomous serpent or handle 
fire almost with impunity, or will go up to and, for the 
time, pacify a raving maniac, while the ordinary man 



( 189 ) 

dare not come near them without throwing the dog, 
etc., into a violent rage. Here you see the positive 
arid negative law of harmony and inharmony again 
demonstrated, and it is accounted for in this manner : 
The spirit atmosphere of the man was in sympathy 
with or vibrating on the same plane as the serpent or 
dog, as the case may be, and when the atmosphere of 
the one came into contact with the other, each realized 
a harmonious feeling. This does not imply that the 
man so endowed is on the same spiritual level as the 
serpent, by any means ; but, on the contrary, it shows 
that the one who possesses such an atmosphere has 
developed that part of his spiritual nature beyond the 
ordinary man to such an extent that even the brute 
is his friend and fears him not, though a stranger. 

And if this atmosphere did not exist as waves of 
matter in motion, how is it that you, when coming 
into the presence of some people, feel a repelling in- 
fluence, and in others a sweet, pleasant, and har- 
monious influence? That this is a fact in your own 
experience, you cannot deny. 

However, it is advisable for us to say that, though 
one man may be in harmony with the dog, it is no evi- 
dence that he is in harmony with the leopard, or ser- 
pent and all the rest of the brute creation; neither 
does it follow that he is in harmony with all dogs. 
For, as with the birthmark, your atmosphere is not 
always in perfect harmony even with yourself ; and so 
it is with the dog. 

This law of marking a child is an existing truth; 
and, as there never was an effect without a cause, and 
as neither your medicine men, your physical scien- 



( 190) 

tists, nor your theologians have ever yet been able to 
advance a practical solution of this truth in a com- 
mon-sense view, we offer you an occult solution, and 
add another link to strengthen the chain of evolution 
and the atomic law. 



( 191 ) 



CHAPTER XXV. 

THE KEYSTONE; OR, A PEEP BEHIND THE VEIL OF THE 

MYSTIC TEMPLE, WHERE THOUGHT AND REASON 

PRESIDE. 

In which many of the mysterious phenomena of 
human life are rationally explained that have here- 
tofore been a hard nut for your metaphysicians to 
crack. 

(July 27, 1897.) 

You have been taught that man is superior to the 
brute on account of his power to reason. Well, let 
us see if we can analyze this reasoning faculty of man 
from an occult point of view; and if we shall make 
you a startling assertion under this caption, we hope 
you will survive it. 

Man does not derive his power to reason from the 
direct working of his brain; but the brain receives 
its reason from the spirit, just the reverse of what you 
have been taught, and this is a parallel case with 
Galileo. You have a physical feeling in your head 
when under profound study, and say you have a head- 
ache from thinking. This is not the fact. You feel 
it because the spirit is projecting organized reason or 
thought on the brain from out of the spirit atmosphere 
at a time when your physical body is not in as perfect 
harmony with your spirit as it ought to be. 



( 192 ) 

For thousands of years the Greek philosophers 
taught that the sun moved around the earth (and 
right here allow us to say to you that our old Greek 
teachers were, in many respects, your superiors). It 
fell, however, to the lot of that obscure monk, Galileo, 
to brave the intelligence of the Avhole world and first 
declare the reverse order of things, and to be declared 
a crank, crazy, heretic, etc. There were in those days 
many astronomical phenomena that our wise men 
could not account for (by following these false gods), 
and, like your wise men of to-day, they dodged the 
question by making poor old Dame Nature assume the 
burden, saying that the mysteries of the gods were not 
for man to know. Alas, alas, poor, patient, long- 
suffering madam, how kind and considerate you are 
to us all ! Yet how little are you understood ! 

The various cells of the brain receive such pro- 
gressed matter as may be impinged upon them in a 
simple mechanical manner. They refine it to organ- 
ized Thought. This thought is then advanced into 
your spirit atmosphere, and is there stored away for 
future use, but is not stored in the brain at all, as 
most people suppose. The brain is as much physical 
matter as the nerves, the muscles, the bones, etc. You 
will see that the physical structure begins with coarse 
atoms, such as the bone; then the ligature, which is 
a step finer; then the muscles, then the nerves, and 
then the brain. All of these are but primary parts of 
a physical object, and are composed of the various 
simple substances of matter, precisely the same as the 
apple, and are but atoms on their journey toward 
perfection. 



( 193 ) 
THE BRAIN THE HIGHEST PHYSICAL MATTER. 

The human brain is the highest and most sensitive 
condition to which, as physical, matter can attain. 
When the atom has reached this point in its onward 
march, physically speaking, it can go no farther. But 
has it reached perfection at this point? Certainly 
not. Then, what becomes of it? Why, as we haye 
already shown you, it here takes its last step in the 
ponderable world and crosses the bridge into the im- 
ponderable, and becomes your spirit atmosphere in 
the form of thought. This spirit is the real part of 
you, the I AM, and this is what directs all of your 
actions as a reasoning being. This atmosphere or 
spirit becomes your storehouse in which you keep and 
record the experience of each of your fiye senses. Here 
the yarious thoughts are brought together by a higher 
law than the physical, and produce reason. (The 
healthy manner in which you store away these pro- 
gressed thoughts in this atmosphere is what con- 
stitutes your mind or memory. If carelessly stored 
it produces a feeble mind. ) 

Reason, haying been produced from out this store- 
house of Memory, causes the effect which produces 
Intelligence. 

The gray matter of the brain is diyided into many 
compartments. The duty of one of these groups is 
to receiye the impression of Reason which the spirit 
projects upon it. This same group then distributes 
this reason, intelligence, etc., to the yarious separate 
groups of the physical brain that goyern the yarious 
functions of the body. (See Chapter XVII.) 



( 194) 
HOW A CHILD IS BORN DEAF AND DUMB. 

To illustrate this, we will take the organ of speech, 
and say that if an expert surgeon were to separate 
the nerve that leads from the vocal organ to that 
particular group of the brain connected with this 
organ, the result would be dumbness, or loss of the 
power of speech, a merely mechanical disarrangement 
of the machine. In like manner, were you to separate 
the auditory nerve from its group of cells, the result 
would be deafness. In this manner a child is brought 
into the physical world deaf and dumb, and it is 
brought about in this way. The. child's skull has not, 
at this time, completely protected the brain by a bony 
covering, — that is, the skull is absent on the top of 
the head. Here nature has provided for the passage 
of the head through the narrow, hard, bony way of 
the pelvis, by allowing the child's head to close to- 
gether in an oblong shape. While the head is com- 
pressed at this passage, those groups of the brain 
governing the vocal organs and the hearing lie side by 
side in the head of the child. If the head of the child 
should receive too much pressure by a wrong presenta- 
tion or some slight malformation, or from numerous 
causes liable to occur, there would then arise grave 
danger of rupturing the nerves of these organs. The 
result would be that the child is born permanently 
deaf and dumb. 

Here you will see that the spirit, while it is perfect- 
ly able to communicate with that group of the brain 
whose duty it is to receive the organized Thought or 
reason and distribute the same to the various other 



(195) 

groups having jurisdiction over the various physical 
functions of the body, finds the bridge spanning the 
gulf between the ponderable and imponderable has 
been destroyed, and it is unable to use the vocal 
organs by its inability to reflect on them; yet these 
organs will be found, upon careful examination, to be 
in a perfect state of formation in every other respect, 
as is proven by their use of the slate and pencil, etc. 
Again, we will call your attention to another case : 
We will suppose a man is talking to> a friend on the 
last day of December in regard to a dinner to be given 
on New Year's day. While conversing with this friend 
something hits him on the head and depresses the 
skull at a certain spot. He is picked up unconscious. 
In a few days he apparently recovers his health, but it 
is found that he has lost his memory and power to 
reason, and in this state he continues for months. In 
every other respect he is perfectly healthy. You 
finally take him to the surgeon, who performs an 
operation called trepanning ; in a few minutes after- 
wards he comes to himself and immediately continues 
the conversation with his friend about the New Year's 
dinner, as though nothing had occurred. Here is a 
complete void in his memory, and it is accounted for 
by the same fundamental cause. The bone, by pressing 
on that group of the brain whose duty it is to receive 
and classify the atoms of thought and project them on 
the spirit atmosphere, has only obstructed the bridge 
for the time and shut off communication between the 
spirit and the physical or the ponderable and the im- 
ponderable. 



(196 ) 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

REASON AND INTELLIGENCE (CONTINUED). 
AS A MAN THINKS, SO HE IS. 

The active operation and application of the so- 
called five senses, by their action through the brain, 
produces each a single thought at a time, which is 
refined matter, and, as matter, it occupies space. By 
a constant accumulation of thought you produce 
reason: by the exercise of reason you develop intelli- 
gence. We will illustrate this as follows: take a 
child one year old. If it had all the organs of the 
brain ready developed at its birth and your power 
to reason was derived from the physical or mechanical 
working of the gray matter, then why does the child 
not display its reasoning faculties, if only in a small 
way? Stand this child by the side of a railroad track 
and let it witness a fearful collision where death and 
destruction reign supreme. Does the child display 
any emotion or reason, even in the slightest degree? 
Not at all. Then it is in order for us to ask, Why not? 
To build an edifice you must lay the first brick. Well, 
we have laid that brick; but, surely, that is not an 
edifice? Nor could you have erected an edifice with 
the first, second, or third brick only. 

The child has got to build its store-house or spirit 
out of the matter furnished it by the five slaves of its 



(197) 

physical body, viz. : the nerves of sense. Its little eye 
sees the wreck and thereby lays the first brick, and 
from this time on it is constantly engaged in furnish- 
ing material out of which, as the edifice takes form 
in space, are stored the results of its earth experience. 
This experience, refined matter or thought, is the real 
part of you, and is the part that exists and continues 
on and on, still reaching out for perfection, after the 
so-called death of the physical body. 

If the child is so situated as to be constantly sur- 
rounded by evil, low, brutish companions, and its 
feeble nerves are compelled to receive nothing but the 
viJe and polluted atoms of matter or material, out of 
which it is again compelled to erect its store-house, 
would you, my friend, condemn the child for not being 
able to erect a more beautiful edifice? 

The noblest attribute of man is to be charitable in 
his thoughts of others; for as a man thinks, so he 
is, and of such materials as you have at hand do you 
erect your spirit. 

THOUGHT TRANSFERENCE. 

When you reflect that the spirit is the keeper of 
your knowledge and reason, and simply projects it on 
your brain, and your vocal organs are merely the 
means by which your spirit communicates with your 
physical body, you will then understand, or, we hope, 
comprehend, how it is possible for thought transfer- 
trice, mind-reading, psychomancy, impressional writ- 
ing, etc. Other freed spirits can come in 
communication with your spirit ; your spirit reflects 
the same on your brain; your brain again reflects on 
your physical organs. 



( 198 ) 
CONSCIOUSNESS. 

As we have already stated, it is not the part of a 
philosopher to assume the negative or offer proofs of 
the non-existence of every fad and fallacy that may 
for the moment occupy the mind of the lay world, yet 
there are exceptional cases wherein he may be reason- 
ably justified in departing from this rule, and par- 
ticularly so where the question under consideration 
involves new issues, new departures, and radically 
revolutionary views of old, accepted theories when 
apparently in harmony with orthodox science. And 
while we would have the student distinctly under- 
stand that we entertain the highest respect for the 
profound wisdom of such deep thinkers as Sir Wil- 
liam Hamilton, Immanuel Kant, Editor Stead, and 
other well-known advocates of the existence of a sub- 
jective consciousness, subliminal self, etc., yet until 
they can offer more substantial evidence than mere 
opinion, we shall insist that others who may differ 
with them have a perfect right to deny the existence 
of a subjective consciousness, subjective mind, sub- 
jective memory, subjective thought, subjective will, 
subjective force, subjective self, or subjective sub- 
stance, until the advocates of these fallacies produce 
such tangible evidence as shall be, of itself, of so plain, 
practical, and reasonable a nature as will satisfy the 
ordinary intelligence by a description of what it is 
composed of, from whence it came, how it came to 
come, what known law necessitated its birth, what 
becomes of it after it has outlived its usefulness, etc. 

I am immediately conscious of being touched — i. e., 



( 199 ) 

the nerve of feeling is being moved — whereby I think 
a thought: touched. 

I recognize immediately through and by means of 
this nerve vibrating some thing in motion; in other 
words, I, for the first instant, become conscious of the 
fact. 

One minute after the act, there are those who would 
have us believe that, in some incomprehensible man- 
ner, the act is changed to subjective consciousness, 
while we shall contend it is simply an act of memory. 

What is that which we recognize as conscious, and 
how do you recognize it? Is it not that something 
(an entity) comes in contact with one of the nerves 
of sense, by vibration, and is precipitated on to that 
particular group of the brain, to be there converted 
into human thought, — i. e. cognition, — to be again ad- 
vanced into your spirit atmosphere or I AM as 
crystallized thought? 

Does the spirit, or I AM, sleep when the physical 
or gray matter of the brain sleeps? Certainly not. 
The spirit, not being physical, does not require a rest 
for recuperation. As in dreaming, here you will per- 
ceive that it is the spirit, and not sw&-conscience, that 
is in full vigor, while the I AM, or spirit self, is in 
close communion with the physical self, or brain. 

The gray physical matter of your animal self re- 
quires a rest for recuperation, and while at rest 
(recognized by you as sleep), the spirit is unable to 
act or reflect back on the various functions of the 
brain in a systematical manner or in regular detailed 
order. This you call dreaming ; but upon awakening, 
to your mind or memory that which you dreamed is 



( 200 ) 

in a chaotic condition — faulty, not systematized. This 
is upon the same principle as the so-called sundog, or 
secondary rainbow, and, to some extent, similar to an 
echo. 

At other times all of the brain functions are not 
asleep or at rest. Perhaps it might be the sense of 
smell, taste, or hearing. Then, in that case, that part 
of the dream or reflection from your spirit would be 
more fully recognized upon awakening than some 
other parts of your dream. 

It is at this point that Mr. Stead is in error in his 
hasty conclusions as regards the existence of a snb- 
conscience or swb-liminal self. Like all amateur in- 
vestigators, the moment that he is convinced as to the 
truth of the phenomenon of automatic writing 
through his own forces, he jumps to the opinion that 
he knows it all, notwithstanding thousands of others 
who have produced the same phenomenon declare him 
to be wrong. 

However, it is not so very astonishing that so care- 
ful a writer as Editor Stead, after becoming absolute- 
ly convinced of the truth of the phenomenon of auto- 
matic writing, in rebounding from the teachings of his 
English friend, Newton, that for each and every force 
there is a counter force: " if in seeking a place to re- 
bound against, he should find it nil, but be kept going 
until he flopped clear over into the other extreme. 

Carefully, friend Stead, and remember there are 
others : Cookes, Wallis, Flammarion. It went much 
against the grain of these distinguished gentlemen to 
doubt the infallibility of Newton's law of force. 
Hence their endeavor to segregate force physical from 
force psychical. 



( 201 ) 

For if conscience of itself is not an entity, bnt the 
effect or expression of some thing or entity that has 
left its mark or effect on one of the various groups 
of the brain by vibration to be crystallized into human 
thought, then we can only come to the conclusion that 
that which has no actual existence of itself could not 
produce a sub or substitute. For instance: You sud- 
denly open your eyes ; in front of you is an apple ; the 
rays of light are first reflected from the apple onto the 
optic nerve before you can be conscious of the object. 

You are only immediately conscious of a body or 
object when some thing first moves the particular 
nerve of sense applicable to the object. You are only 
conscious of sound after the auditory nerve has been 
moved: and the same with smell, taste, and touch. 

What physical thing moved the physical nerve to 
produce the effect called cognition, recognition, or 
thought ? Is not this the act of knowing, of becoming 
vii mediately conscious of the presence of force? And, 
if so, what is it that moves or is moving from the 
object towards the eye in that fraction of a second just 
before it comes in contact with the optic nerve? For 
you will admit that the ray of light must first come 
in contact with the object to be then reflected or re- 
bound onto the eye. 

Now, if this is the birth of consciousness, or the act 
of becoming conscious, then you will perceive that 
consciousness is only an effect of some definite exist- 
ing thing or entity that occupies its proportional 
share of space as such. And, if this be a fact, how can 
it produce a s^5-conscious, or sub-limmal self? 
Then, is this that you call sub or subjective conscience 



( 202 ) 

any thing other than memory, or subliminal self any 
thing other than spirit? For upon the hypothesis of 
spirit much of that which has heretofore appeared to 
many as at least doubtful in your metaphysics can be 
made comprehensible to the average common sense of 
to-day. 

In the act of becoming conscious if more vibrations 
are precipitated on to the cell of gray matter than it 
can receive in regular order, the overplus is thrown 
on to the next most sensitive body that can receive it ; 
which sometimes happens to be the FOETUS ; hence 
a birthmark is produced as described in Chapter 
XXIV, or you become frightened, shocked, or startled. 
This is because the instantaneous act of cognition has 
not had time to be impinged onto the entire brain, 
that it may be advanced into recognition, or a fully 
crystallized thought. 

And now, my dear friend, we are aware that many 
enlightened scholars will be inclined to deny this 
heterodoxical assertion, perhaps yourself included; 
but before you arrive at a dogmatic decision, allow us 
to ask, Has it not occurred to you during some time 
in your life, if you are over the age of twenty, that, 
while in company with some friend, your conversation 
becomes slack, when just at the very minute you were 
going to speak on some entirely different subject, your 
companion speaks on the same subject, — to use a com- 
mon expression, takes the very words out of your 
mouth? Here you will see that your spirit of impon- 
derable matter can and does come into contact with a 
similar substance existing in the spirit atmosphere. 
Your friend's spirit thought also impinges on your 



( 203 ) 

spirit thought, and your thought is again thrown on 
your physical organs, and they obey. 

In this same manner does the operator control his 
hypnotic subject. He does not control the subject's 
physical body, but his spirit, and this spirit controls 
its own body. 

HYPNOTIC SUBJECTS. 

By close observation you will find that all of those 
that are called hypnotic subjects are of a weak and 
vacillating nature, and are of that class of people who 
go through life without much personal ambition, but 
are inclined to lean on some one else, or are always 
serving in a fiduciary capacity. But such subjects 
are not to blame for this condition. The facts are 
their spirit and body are held together by a very weak 
tie of sympathy, which leaves their spirit at the mercy 
of every wandering spirit of stronger magnetism. 
Those people who would be inclined to deny or doubt 
the above are the very ones to insist that there never 
was an effect without a cause. Well, here is an un- 
deniable effect. Before you become dogmatic please 
explain this phenomenon in a more rational manner 
than we have attempted to do. Certainly you cannot 
assert that the gray matter of your brain came into 
physical contact with the gray matter of your friend's 
brain. And yet there was a transference of what, if 
not matter? And if matter, in what condition and 
position was it at the moment previous to its motion 
from your friend's brain to your brain, or vice versa? 

While we have endeavored to refrain as much as 
possible from repeating, yet a metaphysical work such 



( 204 ) 

as we have here undertaken, embracing such radically 
heterodoxical views, would seem to compel us some- 
times to repeat or run down the line of facts. There- 
fore the color — we will say blue — is received on one 
brain-cell only which projects one thought, viz. : blue. 
The violin-string sends the sound wave E, and it is re- 
ceived on another single cell which projects the single 
thought of the vibration or music of E. So it is for 
every kind of vibration ; there is in the brain a special 
cell to receive it and refine it into a single thought of 
imponderable matter. 

Spirit, Ego, or the I AM, are one and the same thing 
and you recognize it as the now or immediate present ; 
that which is passed, whether one moment or one year 
ago, is memory, and could not come under any one 
of the above appellations. 

Now, what is mind, or memory, but accumulated 
thoughts, systematized by classification, and laid 
away in that which constitutes memory's store- 
house, as the product of the labor of your five physical 
senses and recognized only as reason and intelligence. 

Here you perceive that reason and intelligence are 
but an expression or effect, and not an entity or a 
thing occupying space, such as spirit, or Ego. For 
instance, you wish to call to your mind, or memory, 
some past event or thought, and memory for the 
moment lags, when suddenly you exclaim, "Ah ! I have 
it ! " Now, until you had possession of it, it was no 
part of the Ego, or self, as a thing of knowledge. 

This same analysis applies to that which you call 
life. Life is not a thing that occupies space as an 
entity, but is merely an expression or the effect of the 



( 205 ) 

union of three distinct entities that occupy space as 
such, namely: Thought, Force, and Substance; and 
while the three are inseparable, so far as known, yet 
they are three distinct essences. For you cannot assert 
that thought is force or that force is substance; yet 
thought and force exist as something other than sub- 
stance, for as we can only conceive of an atom as the 
last division of substance or as a point in space, then 
the other two would have to exist as something other 
than (for the sake of clearer comprehension, we will 
say) the atom of the substance of matter. Otherwise 
we would have three atoms as the last division, which 
would leave our philosophy in a paradoxical condi- 
tion. 

VOUR THOUGHTS ARE ON THE OUTSIDE OF YOUR BRAIN. 

Where we wish to be clearly understood as radically 
departing from the old Lady Orthodox is, that all of 
your thoughts, instead of their being stored in your 
brain, and there, by some incomprehensible hocus- 
pocus, evolve reason, are located on the outside of 
your brain, in the form of a spirit atmosphere, which 
is still matter, but in an imponderable condition ; that 
these single thoughts also, by the same law of sympa- 
thetic attraction that governs the physical, do associ- 
ate together and produce harmonious music, reason, 
intelligence, etc., according to the state of harmony 
existing at the time between your physical body and 
your spirit. Thus it is we explain to you why you 
seem to more quickly and clearly gather your thoughts 
together or why you can solve a problem more readily 
at one time than at another. 



( 206 ) 

The brain-cells are subject to physical disarrange- 
ment, the same as any other part of yonr body, which 
induces want of harmony ; and this is the reason that 
a clairvoyant or clairaudiant cannot at all times re- 
ceive the impressions that a controlling spirit wishes 
to reflect on the brain of their subject. Or, in other 
words, a controlling spirit hypnotizes your spirit, and 
causes your spirit, by suggestion, to see, hear, smell, 
etc. Your spirit reflects this onto the different groups 
of your physical brain, and you repeat it to the sitter 
who is seeking information. In this case, as a rule, 
the controlling spirits find that they can secure the 
best results by carrying the hypnotic state to what you 
understand as the trance condition, or, it may be, par- 
tial trance. There are also cases where the control- 
ling spirit can so completely hypnotize your spirit as 
to amount to obsession, which may continue for years. 

A single brain cell is the size of a molecule, and re- 
ceives but a single atom at a time, but can do its work 
with great rapidity. 

In corroboration of the real self, or I AM, being 
on the outside of the physical body, and that this real 
self is recognized by you as your thought, we will cite 
any case of obsession where the person obsessed ap- 
pears to lose all previous consciousness or thought of 
their former self, friends, or home, and becomes the 
actual representative of the one dead, so-called. 

The obsessed in this case had no knowledge of the 
previous existence of the dead one; yet he, or she, 
while under obsession, clearly proves that he, or she, 
is in possession of all the former thoughts of the other, 
and remembers nothing of his, or her, own previous 



( 207 ) 

self. Here the physical body completely ignores its 
former owner and obeys some one else. 

This fact would appear to us to be unquestionable 
evidence in support of the truth that you do not think 
with the gray matter of the brain, nor that the brain 
is the seat of reason, or intelligence; for in this case 
you establish one fact beyond a question of a doubt, — 
namely, John Jones, being dead (so-called) and cre- 
mated years ago, takes possession of the physical body 
of Sam Lee for months at a time, and in doing so 
appears to cause the real I AM, or spirit atmosphere, 
of Sam Lee to relinquish or cease to control its own 
body. 

Now, we are (by this fact being established) com- 
pelled to inquire what becomes of the I AM, spirit, or 
conscience of Sam Lee while the INDIVIDUALITY 
or spirit intelligence of John Jones (who has no physi- 
cal body of his own) is occupying it. You cannot 
deny that the same gray matter or brain is still 
occupying the same skull it always occupied, nor can 
you claim that the spirit or intelligence of Sam Lee 
has become annihilated, for it proves that it is yet 
around somewhere during the period of obsession by 
ret inning to and again assuming jurisdiction over its 
own body. 

We will explain it in this way : The spirit of John 
Jones, being more positive than Sam Lee's spirit, in 
drifting around, we may say, in the spirit zone, and 
not realizing that he has made the change called 
death, comes in contact with a mortal spirit's atmos- 
phere that at the time is in almost complete harmony 
with himself. 



( 208 ) 

Here John Jones, the real or disembodied spirit, by 
coming into snch an atmosphere, by the law of affinity 
is seized with an intense desire to return to his own 
home; this intensity of thought on his part simply 
hypnotizes Sam Lee's spirit in precisely the same man- 
ner as a physical hypnotist controls his subject. This 
would cause it to appear that the physical brain was 
nothing more than one of the functional parts of the 
human body, by means of which the real I AM, or 
spirit, of you projects its thoughts or intelligence onto 
and controls or directs the various other functions of 
the physical structure; in other words, the brain is 
functional to all of the other bodily functions. 

By this explanation you will perceive that the 
spirit, or I AM, of a physical body is controlled or 
hypnotized by a disembodied spirit, while in the other 
case the spirit, or I AM, of one mortal hypnotizes the 
spirit of the weaker mortal. 

This is additional evidence that there is no gulf 
separating the physical from the occult world any 
more than that which separates the infant from the 
sere and yellow leaf or the past from the now or 
future ; for from the time the atom of comprehension 
first presents itself for your consideration, 't is one un- 
broken journey, on and on, into the unsolvable 
infinite. 

Since that most wonderful of men, Charles Darwin, 
has clothed your old philosophy with so brilliant a 
garment, in the form of Evolution, opening wide the 
gate for free investigation, thereby relegating your 
priests to their antediluvian caves and cloisters, what 
a glorious smile now beams forth from the features of 



( 209 ) 

Dame Nature! The tail end of the Dark Ages is 
rapidly passing from off the scene ! Behold the light ! 
The day is breaking! Farewell, Orthodoxy, — and 
if forever, then forever, farewell ! The world has out- 
grown your usefulness. 

Retrospection teaches us that as the Greek myth- 
ology evolved out of paganism, so the inexorable law 
of evolution in time required another advance from 
mythology into Christianity. He were a poor pro- 
phet indeed that at this, the dawn of the twentieth 
century, should fail to note the rapid crumbling of 
the foundation of Christianity as it disintegrates, and 
thereby paves the way for yet another change of rea- 
son and common sense over gag-law and blind fanat- 
icism supported by the reasoning of a free people, a 
free press and a free country. 

For, America, it is in thee 

That our hope shall ever be, — 
From ocean to ocean and o'er the sea* 

The sponsor of immortality ! t 

WHAT IS INTELLIGENCE? 

Intelligence has no existence as a thing. Like time, 
it is merely a gauge or rule, or, better yet, a word 
adopted by man to designate the fact that John Doe, 
Solomon, a little child, the horse, elephant, monkey, 
etc., have the power within them to think and reason. 

*The Philippine Islands. 
_ jit was the Hydeville rappings that gave birth to modern 
spiritualism, startled the world, revolutionized your science, your 
philosophy and your religion; for all must be reconstructed to 
rationally account for these phenomena. Shades of Newton, Huxley, 
and Max Muller, where are ye?— C. H. F. 



(210) 

You will frequently hear the expression used in this 
way : " Agassiz was a very intellectual man ; " " That 
is a very intelligent horse." But does the word con- 
vey any definite fact? Is it any evidence that some 
particular definable thing has been established? 

By a collection of thoughts, you produce reason, 
and in no other way is reason produced. This is 
called mind in some cases, and in others intelligence. 
Intelligence it unquestionably is, but it is not mind ; 
for when you come to analyze the word, you will per- 
ceive that if such a thing as mind had a special exis- 
tence, it could only be in the form of memory. 

How frequently you hear the expression, " I have a 
poor memory/' when of a truth there is no such a 
thing as a poor memory. One must either remember 
or not remember, he can not half or quarter remember 
the name of John or Smith. 

Not wishing to prolong these parenthetical re- 
marks, we will merely say that, as we have likened 
your spirit atmosphere to a storehouse in which you 
stored the goods gathered on your journey, just so 
does mind represent the order in which you have 
stored said goods. If you have been careless in the 
manner of your storage, when you want some one 
particular thought, you realize the chaotic condition 
of your mind store-shelving, or memory, and, as the 
power to think and reason begins with the atom and 
follows it through all of its various changes from the 
least to the infinite whole, you will perceive that it is 
impossible for man to establish a line of demarcation 
where or at what particular point the reason of the 
monad changes into the intelligence of a Solomon or 



(211) 

a college professor. Hence all men are feeble-minded 
if the term mind represents either reason or intelli- 
gence. 

We deny that man is superior to the brute because 
he has the power to reason, — at least until you can 
demonstrate as a fact that man derives his reasoning 
faculties from some other source than thought, which, 
in turn, was conceived by an application of the senses, 
all of which the brute possesses. And as you cannot 
qualify as to the exact number of thoughts requisite 
to produce reason, or define them by a standard qual- 
ity, either with a two-foot rule, a quart measure, or a 
pair of scales, then you have no authority to claim a 
superiority to the brute because you have the power 
to reason; for does not the brute possess the same 
faculty? 

That man may have a finer quality and greater 
variety of thought, we do not wish to dispute; and 
now, my friend, as the title to this volume would im- 
ply, our object in writing it was to try and show you 
that there practically was no gulf that made two sepa- 
rate conditions or states of existence any more than 
there was a gulf separating the embryo from the full- 
grown man. 

As we have before stated, there are no two atoms 
alike. Then, no two organisms are alike; and that 
you may properly digest this chapter, you must begin 
again at the very essence— i. e. when two atoms come 
together there we have an organism ; and will call it 
John ; two other atoms come together near by it as 
another organism, which we will call Dick. Now, 
you will readily understand that, as no two atoms are 



(212 ) 

alike, then it will be evident that John and Dick are 
not alike. Kemember, it matters not how insignifi- 
cant the difference may be there is a difference. 

As we have had onr jokes with Mr. Huxley's proto- 
plasm, or cell, we will now explain to you that the 
cells that constitute the human brain represent the 
highest physical matter that the earth can produce; 
therefore, these cells are far more sensitively attuned 
than any other earth matter, not excepting the brute ; 
hence, they are capable of receiving a greater variety, 
both in quantity and quality, of vibration, and, there- 
fore, produce a finer variety of thoughts or reason; 
and as no two organisms are alike, either in man or 
brute, where will you definitely fix your line of what 
constitutes the point of difference between inferiority 
and superiority, or how far wrong was the Indian 
when he declared that there was no bad whiskey ; that 
all whiskey was good, only some was better than 
others? 

Take Darwin's Origin of Species, is it possible for 
man to tell or realize where it began or where it will 
stop in variation? Can man realize the amount of 
space an infinite atom occupies as a so-called begin- 
ning, or the size of all infinite space? 

Is there a definite gulf between these extremes? 
Does not all that man has any knowledge of start out 
of the incomprehensible and pass slowly before his 
senses into the incomprehensible without a percep- 
tible break? Then, after all, does not your boasted 
superiority consist in the rational manner in which 
you apply the human senses for the purpose of obser- 
vation, thereby generating thought and reason ; and 



( 213 ) 

if you fail to apply thein, to what extent are you 
superior to the brute? 

Is the physical life of man the end of evolution, or 
the spirit the end, or the soul the end? Who will say? 
AVe feel inclined to acknowledge, like friend David- 
son, that there are some things which are inscrutable; 
for certainly out of the inscrutable we came and into 
the inscrutable we must pass. 



< 214 ) 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

SPIRIT DOUBLE. 

(August 2, 1897.) 

As, from the beginning of this work, it was our 
intention to gradually instruct the neophyte in the 
primary degrees of the mystic temple by introducing 
a?nd instructing you in the use of the various articles 
found in each particular chamber of the temple, and 
thereby to gradually and systematically reveal to you, 
as your mind unfolded, the use of these articles, we 
now feel justified in introducing you into yet another 
chamber for your consideration, which we will call 
the Double or the appearance of one who has not left 
the physical body. In order to make our explanation 
more clearly understood, we will allow our amanuen- 
sis to s^ate a case of his own experience. 

I was having a private materializing seance with 
Mr. C. V. Miller about three o'clock p. m v when two 
forms came out of the cabinet and gave the names of 
Jane Schritze and Frank Barns, the names of two of 
my sisters, aged about sixty-four and seventy years. 
I had not heard from home (the State of Delaware) 
for a number of years, and did not know whether they 
were living or dead, and was not thinking of them 
at the time. I asked them if they had passed over, 



(215 ) 

and they answered me yes. There was no other con-' 
versation passed between us, and they retired. Three 
or four days afterward, my oldest sister, Kuth, who I 
knew had passed over some thirty years before, came 
to me in a seance at the same place. I asked her if 
Jane and Frank were over on her side, and she an- 
swered no, which was the truth. I then asked her who 
those two were who came to me as Jane and Frank. 
She said it was their Double, and I could get no 
further information from her on that subject. I was 
positively certain that the medium did not know that 
I had a sister, to say nothing of their names. 

We will now endeavor to explain this phenomenon 
to you ; and in order that you may the more readily 
understand us, it will be necessary for us to draw the 
veil of the temple a little more to one side and intro- 
duce you into this, to you, new room of our temple. 
We will begin by calling your attention to the fact 
that, in our last chapter, we frequently made use of 
the expression spirit or spirit atmosphere. 'T is true, 
as we have found it, that man has a physical body, a 
spirit body, and a soul. But it does not naturally 
or reasonably follow that the spirit body is in the 
form of your physical body, or that it forever holds 
one shape; in fact, from your physical birth on the 
earth plane until you have reached the end of your 
earth journey, the spirit that accompanies your physi- 
cal body is more in the nature of a body or cloud of 
ether, composed of imponderable atoms of advanced 
matter, and does not assume the form or shape of the 
human body until you reach the end of your earth 
journey. Do not misunderstand us in this assertion 



(216 ) 

or misconstrue our meaning; for while some sensi- 
tives can project their spirit atmosphere for a long 
distance and impinge their thoughts on the atmos- 
phere of another sensitive who at the moment is in 
perfect harmony with them and receive an answer in 
return, and while the one at a distance will sometimes 
declare that while receiving the communication they 
saiv the person, it was only subjective, and was im- 
pinged on the receiver's brain in the same manner as 
the communication. 

Here the spirit, having no further use for the gross 
or physical pile of earth matter, then evolves a real 
spirit body out of the mass of imponderable matter 
that your physical body is compelled, by the law of 
evolution, to leave behind, while the old atoms of your 
earth body are again cast into the mills of the gods to 
be ground over. As your spirit atmosphere is com- 
posed of the various atoms of the experience of your 
five physical senses, and began to accumulate from 
your birth up to the present time, and is the real part 
of you, although invisible to you, as all other atomic 
matter is, yet it is perfectly visible to those spirits 
who make this phase of spirit life a special study. 
Then you certainly ought to understand that nearly 
all of your past acts or thoughts are visible to and 
understood by controlling spirits. 

And now for our explanation of the phenomenon. 
Of course, at various times of your life, you are think- 
ing of your sister or friend, it may have been ten years 
before the phenomenon, but the thought or action at 
the time became a part of your atmosphere. This 
matter it is that the controlling spirit sees or senses. 



( 217 ) 

The control may not be aware of the fact whether your 
sister has passed over or not and, we are sorry to say, 
in many cases, does not care as long as he can play 
upon your credulity and pave the way for more sit- 
tings for his medium, which means more money for 
him and less for you. He and the band of spirits with 
him make up a materialized body, a mere automaton, 
which they have under full and complete control, and 
can make this machine say and act just as they will, 
precisely as you control the will of a good hypnotic 
subject; and this law applies to the clairvoyant and 
trance medium just the same. However, we wish you 
particularly to understand that these controlling 
spirits are not gods, and cannot read or understand 
all of your atmosphere; indeed, there are many at- 
mospheres that they cannot penetrate at all, which 
will, in a measure, explain to you why some sitters 
fail to get any or but indifferent communications. 
When you reflect that there is much of your own life 
that you cannot at the moment recall, and as spirits 
are really only one step in advance of the mortal, you 
will see that it is not so very remarkable after all. 

At the same time, spirits are like mortals in this 
way: If you make it a custom to have frequent sit- 
tings with some particular medium, you will find 
from experience that the more you go the better the 
control can come into rapport with your atmosphere, 
and the more satisfactory it will be to you. What we 
mean by this is that your atmosphere is more or less 
cloudy to the control as well as to yourself, — i. e. 
when you forget some past event or name, for in- 
stance, you will remark, " I have it on the end of my 



(218 ) 

tongue almost, but cannot recall it." At a later 
period, without any thinking on your part, the name 
comes pat to your mind. This shows you that the 
matter of thought has never been lost, but is a fi.rcJ 
part of your atmosphere, and the more you come into 
the atmosphere of the controls, the better they can 
familiarize themselves with your spirit surroundings. 

IMPERSONATING A SPIRIT. 

We will call your attention to a very common oc- 
currence in public and private seances where the 
medium has frequently been known to give the name 
of some one of your acquaintances who has not yet 
left the physical body, and also names that you recog- 
nize of those that have. As a general thing, the con- 
trolling spirit does not know one from the other, but 
relies on their knowledge of human nature and a close 
watch and study of the sitter to tell them the differ- 
ence, when they can read fragmentary circumstances 
that connect the name with some event in your life, all 
of which is a part and parcel of your atmosphere. 
You will here observe that they seldom go very far 
into the details of the event. All you have to do to 
prove this is to lead them (the controls) to under- 
stand that your friend has passed over, and you will 
find that the control will give you the same fragmen- 
tary information. Where the control errs is in lead- 
ing you to believe that your spirit friend is present. 
Then, in the interest of truth and for your own in- 
formation, just make it a case of diamond cut dia- 
mond. We only state this to be the case, as a general 
rule, among professional mediums. Of course, there 



(219 ) 

are, we are happy to say, many cases where your spirit 
friend is present, and you can enjoy a very agreeable 
and satisfactory sitting, when the conditions are 
favorable. It is owing to this fact that some will call 
the medium a fake, while others are equally as sure 
to the contrary, and it leaves the honest investigator 
in doubt, or between two fires, as it were. The me- 
dium is not altogether responsible for this state of 
affairs ; the control is obliged to place him under the 
hypnotic condition, in order that they may the better 
control his vocal organs, and he, in this state, knows 
not what he is saying or doing. 

We hope that this will serve as a profitable lesson 
to you by showing you how unjust it is to judge others 
in matters wherein you are entirely ignorant of the 
governing facts yourself. It is so convenient to raise 
the cry of " Fraud ! " and make it act as a panacea for 
our chagrin, when things do not always come our 
way. 



( 220 ) 



CHAPTEK XXVIII. 

THERE IS NO DEATH. 
(August 4, 1897.) 

There is no such thing as cold. That which you call 
cold is only the absence of so much heat. Wherever 
you find matter you find motion, friction, and heat. 
So also with darkness ; that which you call darkness 
is only the absence of so much light. Light and heat 
are composed of matter, and, as such, have an ex- 
istence; where you find motion you find friction and 
electricity, which produce light. The optic nerve can- 
not sense an atom of light but there is light, though 
it is not sensed by the human eye. And so with death : 
There is no such thing as death ; like cold and dark- 
ness, it is only a false term, and conveys no truth. 
Were there such a thing as death, it could only be in 
the absence of life. As there is no known spot or place 
that does not contain atomic matter, which is moved 
by atomic life, where then will you find unoccupied 
space for death? 

You have been taught of old that " Death conquers 
all things." Of all absurd ideas, this takes the palm; 
if it were true it would indeed make death superior to 
life, darkness superior to light, and cold superior to 
heat. Here three supposed things that have no actual 



( 221 ) 

existence are made the annikilators of indestructible 
matter. What a paradox! If death destroys life it 
must have the cadaver on its hands. What, may we 
ask, does it do with this inanimate matter? Does it, 
death, go wandering around space until it finds some 
poor, weak, unprotected atom and rob it of its life to 
reanimate its corpse? And in that case, would it, 
death, not still have another corpse, of the despoiled 
atom, on its hands? You will probably answer that 
the human body has been robbed of its life by death. 
Indeed? Then let us ask: Where did the body get 
this life from? You will admit that you must be in 
possession of a thing before you can be robbed of it. 
In fact, was life at any time out of your possession, 
or was not life with the very first atom of your body? 
"/ am the Beginning and the End" — Life. 

It was life — i. e. thought and force — that furnished 
the first atom with motion in the beginning. It is 
then advanced to an object body, thence to a spirit 
body, and thence to a soul, which is the end, at least 
of comprehension, and at no time in its travels have 
we lost sight of it. This brings us down to the same 
question asked by Immanuel Kant, one hundred 
years ago : 

HAVE YOU A BODY? 

Have you a body at all, and, if so, how did you be- 
come possessed of it? Again, did the joining together 
of a specified number of atoms constitute your body, 
and at what point in your time did the exact or 
specified number of atoms complete this body? When 
one of these atoms leaves this completed body is 



( 222 ) 

it then dead? When all but one atom leaves this com- 
plete body, is it still alive? " O Death, where is thy 
sting?" 

As we know that this object called a body is built 
up by a process of integration at one point while 
undergoing a like process of disintegration at another 
point, and that this process is ceaseless from the join- 
ing of the first two atoms until a complete segregation 
of all the atoms takes place and it is no longer an ob- 
ject. To use a metaphor, it came in an unbroken march 
from next to nothing, and, without ceasing its motion, 
returned in an unbroken march next to nothing. This 
will establish the fact that at no particular time was 
it a body, but only seemed to be. Then, if it never was 
a body, how could a body die, to say nothing of annihi- 
lation? 

The fact is that that which you call your body is 
not you at all, nor is it the keeper of your life, but is 
stmply a large or small accumulation of atom life, 
attracted together for mutual benefit. Where a cease- 
less stream of migratory atoms is taking place, and 
where, as one atom ceases to be found useful, it is cast 
out and others take its place, when, out of this ac- 
cumulated mass of atoms is produced a spirit atmos- 
phere, which is the governing spirit, or life, of the 
body. This is produced in the same manner as the 
spirit or over-life that governs a family, a city, or a 
state, and is not a physical thing, and is, therefore, 
not subject to death or disintegration, even were 
death a fact. As for Noah Webster's purely imaginary 
idea of the word or term inanimate — well, to be as 
charitable as we can, we will say that when we come 



( 223 ) 

across some thing that we find is in an absolute state 
of rest } we will acknowledge that we have found in- 
animation, but until then we shall insist that the 
world has outgrown the term, and that truth has no 
further use for it. 

Hold out your hand; now crook your finger and 
tell us what crooked your finger. Do you say it was 
your physical life of the body? If so, pray tell us 
how the body of a live man knew that the fingers of a 
dismembered arm that had been buried for days was 
in a cramped position in its grave, and was paining 
him? When a friend goes secretly and digs up the 
arm and finds it true that the hand has been forced 
into the box in a cramped position, he straightens out 
the hand and says nothing to the patient but the 
patient complains no more. In this case the arm was 
quite a distance from the body and there could not 
have been any plnjsical connection between the two. 
Was this arm dead? No; no more than it ever was. 

There is no dead; but the spirit atmosphere which 
is your individual life, and is outside as well as inside 
of your pile of atomic matter called a body, whether 
dismembered or not, is all the personal life you pos- 
sess. It is also an acknowledged fact, of which you 
may easily procure the evidence by inquiring of those 
who have lost a limb, that they who are minus such a 
limb can, or seem to, feel the fingers on the dismem- 
bered part. This shows that the whole spirit and that 
part of the brain governing the fingers is all present 
and in full operation, and is additional proof that 
neither the body nor any part of it is you; while the 
spirit, still being able to recognize all the absent mem- 



( 224 ) 

bers, is proof of it (the spirit) being the only thing 
that is real and is ruled by that which accompanied 
the first atom when it started on its earth journey 
from out of the Infinite, viz., Life, or an undeveloped 
Soul. 

The student will understand that Life is not an 
entity, but only a word or term used to convey the 
knowledge of the presence of thought, force, and sub- 
stance, which are infinite entities ; the effect of these 
three is what is called life. 

(See Chap. XXXVIII.) 



( 225 ) 



CHAPTER XXIX. 

IS PHYSICAL FORCE TRANSMITTIBLE TO SPIRIT AND 
VICE VERSA? 

(August 12, 1897.) 

As we know that all physical force is derived from 
life only, and as you are aware of the fact that object 
matter has frequently been moved in the presence of 
thousands of reliable witnesses, yourself included, 
without any apparent physical cause, and as we know 
of no effect ever having been produced without cause, 
it is permissible for us to endeavor to solve this 
phenomenon. 

If after the lapse of the past fifty years of patient 
investigation by many of your most enlightened 
scientists you have failed to find a physical cause to 
solve this riddle, would it then not be the duty of those 
who seek knowledge for the love of truth to look for a 
hypothetical cause? At least, until you can find 
something better? Would it not be more creditable 
to this, the dawn of the twentieth century, than a dis- 
play of that which might be construed at a later 
period in history (when these phenomena will most 
undoubtedly be a well-recognized and better under- 
stood fact) as dogmatism, fanaticism, petty jealousy, 
or a hereditary hatred of all things heterodoxical. 

(For it does move, for all that.) 



( 226 ) 

While we recognize the valuable services of those 
who made this and kindred subjects a life study — 
such as Hume, Hegel, Kant, and others — and who 
were undoubtedly well qualified to handle the ques- 
tion from such data as they had at hand in the 
eighteenth century, and when we consider all the radi- 
cal, fanatical, and tyrannical persecutions of those 
who dared even to advance an idea not first approved 
by the ruling church of those scholastic days, of 
wholesale murder, torture, and imprisonment, we can 
only wonder that they had the temerity to do and 
dare as well as they have. But, though the mills of 
the gods grind slowly, they still are grinding exceed- 
ing fine, and from the birth of civilization in the 
Western hemisphere this unmitigated and vindictive 
snemy of free thought has been bridled, and the world 
no longer is required to first submit its idea of truth 
to those who visited their wrath on those who differed 
with them, on St. Bartholomew's Eve and destroyed 
the great Alexandrian library. 

The greatest difficulty that those old writers of a 
hundred years ago had to encounter, and even those 
of the first half of the nineteenth century, were, first, 
the church and its opposition ; they were not allowed 
to investigate on any line detrimental to that power, 
at least in an open and fair controversy. The 
second and most important difficulty was their lack 
of sufficient and reliable knowledge of those phenom- 
ena which have been so abundantly distributed over 
the surface of the whole civilized world within the 
last fifty years. 






( 227 ) 



MIRACLES. 



In those days, when the Church was so all powerful 
as to sweep up in its onward march nearly all civiliza- 
tion, if it ever had a zenith, that should certainly have 
been the time to produce its so-called miracles (now 
understood as spirit phenomena). Let us ask, Did 
they do so? Did they, by their infallibility and 
special divine wisdom, convince Galileo, one of their 
own especially divine monks, that he was wrong? Or 
did they resort to the same argument as on St. Bar- 
tholomew's Eve? Did they show Kant a " Holy 
Ghost," or any other ghost? Did they show him writ- 
ing on the wall, or even slate- writing? Did they pro- 
duce, for the sound consideration of so scholastic a 
mind as Kant's, the phenomena of clairvoyance, mind- 
reading, thought transference, materialization of the 
body or voice, etherealization, spirit photography, oil- 
paintings, levitation of heavy bodies, spirit-rapping, 
hypnotism, and a variety of other phenomena that are 
no longer a question of truth before your scientists 
of to-day? No, my friend; under such a bitter 
fanaticism, the atmosphere of those days was not pro- 
pitious for the real spirit of truth. The world was 
just emerging from that mistaken policy where might- 
made right. It is not so much of a wonder, after all, 
that the mud should still cling to the Christian 
church, nor, as those questions were of an unknown 
quantity or quality at that time, and as all things 
then were looked upon in a purely physical or worldly 
sense, is it astonishing that so wise a man as Kant 
should find himself in a quandary as to the question 



( 228 ) 

of a first cause, but, like most of his predecessors, 
rather incline to ignore it as a postulate in meta- 
physics. 

As Mr. Huxley and a few others of a later date 
have shown a desire to jump the question by neither 
affirming or denying it, but find it more convenient 
to stop at the so-called " protoplasm," let us hope 
more from a lack of knowledge than a want of cour- 
age, then we still feel it incumbent upon us to con- 
tinue our investigations along the same lines that 
have carried us thus far successfully towards, at least, 
a rational and common-sense solution of the question, 
viz : Is physical force transmittible to spirit, and vice 
versa? 

Force is the second principle of life, as energy or 
thought is the first principle, and wherever you find 
life you find force. 

The time has now arrived when the world should 
cease to move in the same old worn rut on ac- 
count of its ease of travel, especially if it would seek 
to know if there might not be other roads not only as 
smooth, but perhaps shorter, which also lead to Eome. 
The old theory that to move a physical body requires 
physical force might be true if there were no other 
force in existence that could be used by man, and one 
who labors under the old theory might be excused for 
asking such a question. But if, as we think, we have 
already established the fact of the existence of other 
force than physical — namely spirit force, by so doing 
you will see that it is not at all necessary to transmit 
or borrow force from the physical for the spirit's use 



( 229 ) 

at all times, though, we are free to admit, it is not an 
unusual thing to do. 

Our object in answering your question in this 
manner was to show you how necessary it is to be 
careful and frame your question so that the answer 
may convey as nearly as possible the knowledge 
sought for. We find you in a quandary as to how a 
spirit can go into a garden, pluck a flower, and then 
pass the same through a solid wall and into the hand 
of a mortal with the dew undisturbed on the flower, 
which, we, your spirit friends, have done for you on 
several occasions. 



PASSING MATTER THROUGH MATTER. 

As we have before stated, no physical or object 
matter is a solid, but is composed of atoms, held 
together, let us say for the purpose of this illustration, 
like the honey-bee when swarming. These atoms, 
though appearing to you to be solid: while in the 
object — say of a rose — are not so by any means and 
are capable of being separated from each other for a 
short time by a chemical law of spirit. These atoms 
when so divided are in the form of a spirit ether, and 
are passed between the atoms of a door or wall, when 
they are again returned by the same law to their origi- 
nal form; this process does not disturb the oxygen 
and hydrogen which form the dew-drop, any more 
than the water which composes the rose, and this same 
process is used when a white handkerchief is passed 
through your coat or a black cloth. The atoms of the 
one are passed between the atoms of the other by an 



( 230 ) 

almost instantaneous disintegration and integration 
of the atoms. By bringing this chemical law to bear 
on the rose we are enabled to suspend the law of sym- 
pathetic attraction, and, in restoring the law, each 
atom is again attracted to the same neighboring atom, 
and thus it is that the flower is returned to its natural 
freshness. 

Do not lose sight of the fundamental fact that it is 
the spirit or invisible that is the real of life, and that 
the physical is only in a temporary or passing con- 
dition; hence the power derived from spirit far ex- 
ceeds any physical power. But you, who are only now 
in your physical or earth state, can form no adequate 
idea of the immense power of spirit, you yet having 
had but little if any experience of the next state of 
your being. 

Forces there are in, around, and about the earth 
planet yet undiscovered by man and of such immense 
power that if you but knew and could utilize their 
power you could almost become a very god, forces of 
which the wisest of mortals have not the faintest con- 
ception, so very fine and insidious and yet so grand 
and far reaching. Is it, then, any wonder that these 
same wise men of earth fail to comprehend, even in 
the slightest degree, the Infinite Cause of all Physical 
Effect? 

But a new light, my friend, is dawning for the 
people of earth. 

THE IMMORTALITY OF THE SOUL. 

You have now taken another step of vital impor- 
tance in vour school of letters where all the forces of 



( 231 ) 

the wise spirits will be concentrated for years to come, 
lending all the assistance the surrounding conditions 
will allow to enable your professors of psychology to 
grasp and teach to the rising generation this, the 
most beautiful and important of all truths, and give 
to them an actual knowledge of the immortality of the 
soul, and when a definite and final answer may be 
given to Job, " If a man dies, shall he live again? " 



( 232 ) 



CHAPTEE XXX. 

AN O'ER-TRUE STORY OF THE FIRST DAWN OF A SPARK 

OF LIFE. 

Wherein we locate our story ten thousand miles 
away in space and far from any other planet. Where 
we represent the Life as a thing apart from matter, 
and as having been slumbering for seons of ages, 
awaiting its time to quicken and move, using the atom 
of matter as a bedchamber while sleeping. The moral 
of which is : As it is with one life, so it is with all life. 

MY FIRST REALIZATION OF LIFE IN SPACE. 

It seemed to me that I did but dream that I was 
dreaming of a dream ; I looked around to seek a cause; 
'T was one eternal sameness, alow and aloft, to the 
right and left, but sparks of life and matter. But I 
awake, I realize that I am. How do I know I am? 
Until I came into contact with matter 'twas but a 
dream, a spark of life. With me, at that moment, I 
realized that it was conquer or be conquered. Shall 
this dumb, coarse, inert thing, this atom of substance 
surpass my power? Or am I, and I alone, all power? 
Ah, ha! veni, vidi, vici. Henceforth/ am King, and 
matter must my will obey. For am not I, from this 
time on, knowledge? Ah, and if I know, I '11 reason 



( 233 ) 

thus : To increase niy power I '11 have to enlarge, I '11 
advance and advance until all power shall be mine. 
By this power to attract will I continue to attract all 
sparks around me until I shall become a host unto 
myself. 

For if two are greater than one then thousands are 
greater than two, until I shall weary of my work and 
become a world. 

But I find I cannot rest, for am not I the parent of 
motion, and was it not through motion that I became 
aware of mine own existence? Then if I cease my 
labor, shall I not again sleep, die? Ah, as well might 
one cease to be. And could I cease to be? Alas, no! 
'T is on and on and on; worlds and worlds within a 
world; 'tis one perpetual motion, nature repeating 
upon herself. 

Then how shall I continue this labor of mine? Ah, 
ha! I see! I' 11 set this host (atoms of substance) of 
mine to work and will first organize my forces out of 
this chaotic condition. I '11 place captains over tens 
and captains over thousands; then shall I form this 
host of mine into sixty-five or more legions, and I '11 
know them as they are: Hydrogen, Oxygen, Carbon, 
Nitrogen, Iron, Phosphorous, Sulphur, Potassium, 
Soda, and others. Over these, my simple subjects 
(substance), I '11 place my General, Sir Binary Com- 
pound, and will give to him my Caduceus which shall 
to him impart the mystic secrets of my spirit ether (or 
atmosphere), bidding him go to and discover the 
many uses he can place my hosts for their advantage 
and progression, teaching to him as I had found it, 
that in unity there is strength, and by his knowledge 



(234) 

of compounding, with all mine hosts to back him, he 
shall produce a physical thing and be the evolution 
of matter. He shall teach his captains of thousands 
and of tens to ever and forever drill and instruct these 
mighty hosts in the law of evolution and the survival 
of the fittest, for them to gather experience on their 
travels that they may become possessed of an ex- 
panded reason and intelligence; when wisdom shall 
no longer be to them a dream or a subject of annihila- 
tion, but real and eternal life. 

Teach each one and all that they, as single individ- 
ual members of the one infinite and eternal whole, that 
should one of these my children (atoms) die or cease 
to be, then shall I no longer be perfection and remem- 
ber that thou, my general, art my very vitals for — 
United we stand, divided we shall surely fall. 

WHICH WAS FIRST, THE EGG OR THE CHICKEN? 

If Darwin's theory of evolution is correct, i. e. on 
the origin of species, can you tell me on that hypo- 
thesis which was first, the egg or the chicken? 

Can man number the sands of the sea? Then how 
futile to attempt to grasp the infinite variation of 
atomic structure ! As we know that no two things are 
alike, and reason thus : That no two planets are alike, 
no two animals, vegetables, or minerals are alike, then 
you can reasonably infer that no two* atoms are alike. 
As you only know of life by its manifestations 
through matter and its being the first cause of all 
motion and motion being the cause of all change, 
would it be at all unreasonable to suppose that no two 
atoms of life were alike? 



( 235 ) 

As it was not our intention when we began this 
work to offer you our belief, but confine ourselves to 
known, or, at least, self-evident, facts for your con- 
sideration, we find in the question you have submitted 
a tendency to lead us beyond our previous limitation, 
and would also have the further tendency to expose 
our work to unfair criticism. For us to attempt to 
digest the question thoroughly would compel us to 
go beyond (if there is a beyond) that point which we 
have established as the known beginning of human 
comprehension or a time previous to the existence of 
life. Were we inclined to attempt such a vague and 
perhaps chimerical course, it would only have the ten- 
dency to lead us into all manner of toild speculations 
and beliefs that would serve no beneficial end, and 
might be the means of retarding the advance of truth. 
However, we will endeavor to give you such views on 
the subject as lie within our prescribed limits. 

Life is the only motive power that we know of and 
we only know of its existence as an undisputed fact, 
by observing its action on matter — i. e. we see and 
recognize it as a thing apart from matter. Then, 
whenever and wherever we recognize motion, we must 
agree that said motion was produced by some peculiar 
law which we are rationally compelled to designate 
as the infinite, or a point in time previous to all 
human or spirit comprehension. We will, therefore, 
begin our explanation by observing that before motion 
there must be Thought, Eeason, and Intelligence. Let 
the amount in quantity or quality be with you of a 
secondary consideration. 

It is a conceded fact that if a thing moves from one 



( 236 ) 

place to another (however short the distance) of its 
own volition, using its own forces or energy to ac- 
complish a preconceived object for a definite purpose, 
that that very fact establishes the evidence and is of 
itself the evidence of intelligence; and, as we have 
already described to you the law of like attracting 
like — i. e. gold to gold, apple to apple, etc. — it will be 
unnecessary for us to repeat the same. As intelli- 
gence is the result of and is produced by reason, then 
we also know that we produce or procure our reason 
from a single thought, for we hope that you will not 
contend, after all Ave have previously said on this sub- 
ject, that the child of six months of age, when it 
crawled off a porch and was hurt, possessed reason, 
nor can you deny that it had one thought. 

We will now appeal again to your own common 
sense and ask you to look around you and see if you 
can for a fact recall in your oavu experience two 
people whose reasoning faculties were perfectly alike. 
No. But when tested, the wisest minds that we have 
any record of are radically different when brought 
under microscopic or a crucial test. Then it follows 
that, as life produced reason, we have a perfect right 
to infer that life in the so-called elementary or atomic 
state, also differs in its own peculiar law; but 
whether this difference in atomic life is produced by 
another law, lying beyond the atom, is not within our 
knowledge to say, and is quite sufficient data for you 
to work upon if you confine your researches within the 
limits we have established — i. e. comprehension. 

Having led you as carefully as we are able up to 
the question of the egg 7 we will now say again that 



( 237 ) 

the atom of matter is the egg itself of all organized 
formation, of whatsoever nature and composition, 
and is spherical in shape. You will also see that while 
you are accustomed to say that these two pigeons, 
apples, or twins are just alike, nevertheless such an 
occurrence would in truth be a miracle. Again, very 
many people are accustomed to draw a distinction 
between organized life and Mr. Huxley's proto- 
plasm or organic and inorganic matter, which is only 
another of those false gods to be overthrown for the 
very moment that two ultimate atoms come together, 
right there you have the very beginning of organiza- 
tion. Will scientists dare dispute this? This being 
the case you will perceive that, long before atomic 
matter became objective to man, the embryo object 
was in a process of atomic formation, and when man, 
by his ingenuity, can tell you just how many atoms 
it takes to make an object then you may expect him to 
know and be able to teach you where the organic and 
inorganic, animation and inanimation, begins and 
leaves off. 

If, as we think, we have established the fact that 
there are no two known things alike, not excepting 
life, then this known fact is the very best of evidence 
of the truth of the origin of all advancing and chan- 
ging species or organisms. 

Now, as to the egg being before the chicken, practi- 
cally speaking. Certainly no intelligent seeker after 
truth can doubt Mr. Darwin's explanation, as we 
understand him. First we have the individual atomic 
difference, second the struggle for existence — hybrids, 
climatic, etc. Does not the alligator lay an egg? The 



( 238 ) 

water lizard? The winged lizard? You will find all 
this in detail fully explained by Darwin, and in 
which we more than agree; and it would, therefore, 
only take up unnecessary space in this work. We 
will quote, however, one single remark of that dis- 
tinguished scholar, to wit : " That systematists will 
have to decide whether any form (objective matter) be 
sufficiently constant and distinct from other forms to 
be capable of definition and deserve a specific name." 
Like Darwin, we shall insist on their producing a 
specific line of demarcation before assuming the right 
to specify. Hence we shall be led to weigh more care- 
fully and to value higher the actual amount of 
difference between them. 

That there may be no misunderstanding of our 
position, we will say that the systematists should 
be required to produce a single species that cannot be 
changed, either by accident or design, in the course of 
six or eight generations. 

We cannot refrain from calling your attention to 
Mr. Darwin's predication regarding the inestimable 
value psychology will assume in the future in throw- 
ing light on many of the mystic laws of life, for we 
can assure you it will be found the open sesame to 
many beautiful truths of nature. As a partial cor- 
roboration of that great man's wisdom, we will call 
your attention to his prediction on psychology made 
about the year 1869, — that, in the distant future, it 
would be based on a new foundation. Fifteen years 
later your college of letters, for the first time, 
established a special chair of learning on psychology, 
which, we hope, not in the distant but in the near 



( 239 ) 

future, and with the proper nourishment, will more 
than fulfill Mr. Darwin's most sanguine expectations. 
Please accept this as a tribute of our appreciation 
to one who has given to man the most valuable work 
of the nineteenth century — " The Origin of Species/' 
— which we hope will be the entering wedge that shall 
forever split asunder fanaticism, ignorance, and 
superstition. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

IF NO MATTER IS DESTROYED, WHAT BECOMES OF IT AFTER 
THE EARTH CAN NO LONGER ASSIST IT? 

You will understand that, while we recognize the 
existence of life as a thing apart from matter, the 
ontological proof of which we offer you is its essential 
attributes, a thing that is not matter itself, but is 
inseparable from matter, in something the same sense 
as you would say that energy is not motion, and, while 
we find that energy is always found in company with 
motion, yet it is a thing apart from the motion itself. 
We do not wish to be understood as implying that all 
life, is human life or that it eventually is refined into 
the over-life of a human soul. With this slight ex- 
planation for a basis we will proceed to elucidate. 

As the apple has served us so well up to the present 
time for the purpose of an illustration, we will again 
avail ourselves of its service. After the matter is 
passed off from the apple in the form of fragrance, 
a part of this advanced matter is impinged on the 
animal brain, it may be, both human and brute, and 
is again advanced into thought matter of which we 
have before spoken. Now, you will understand that 
there still remains a considerable portion of this 
fragrance that is not so disposed of; a part of this 
remainder, after the disintegration of the apple. 



( 241 ) 

assumes the form of a spirit apple; the remainder 
passes into the, let us say, spirit atmosphere of the 
earth and assumes the form of imponderable matter. 

This law applies to all advanced matter. You will 
remember that in this condition, as matter in bulk, 
as you of the earth are accustomed to view and 
measure it, is an indefinite amount which you can 
probably better comprehend when we explain to you 
that as imponderable surrounding the earth it again 
assumes the atomic form, but in an advanced condi- 
tion. 

And now your attention, please. Out of this ad- 
vanced matter, by a higher power of the law of life, of 
which you, the unadvanced people of earth, have as 
jet had no experience, as you have not reached your 
full earth development, is produced a very great many 
forces and spirit substances that are again impinged, 
by a reflecting process, on to the affairs and matters 
of earth. In this condition matter finds itself so at- 
tenuated as to appear to your physical sense more in 
the form or nature of an influence. We, as spirits, 
recognize its existence by its effect on the earth matter 
in many ways that are almost unconscious to you, 
but we will endeavor to convey a partial idea of it 
to you when we say it acts on the gross matter of 
earth to improve its condition in the same manner 
that we, as spirits, are at this moment acting on you, 
our amanuensis. Does not the information which 
we have been enabled from time to time to impress 
upon your mind improve your condition? 

In conveying our thoughts to you we are using a 
definite force in the form of spirit- waves of thought. 



( 242 ) 

Now, do not place a wrong construction on our ex- 
planation of matter returning to earth matter and 
deduce from that that the theosophists are right in 
advocating the doctrine of reincarnation, for we mean 
nothing of the kind. If you properly digest our re- 
marks, you will see that a rational and logical expla- 
nation is for the higher and more perfect matter to 
sympathize with the lower matter, by lending a part 
of its forces to assist the weaker one, precisely the 
same as the father assists the child and as the spirits 
assist you. This is evolution. 

Do you not follow the same law when you graft the 
rose or apple? Can you by any logical process of 
reasoning claim that the real spirit of the tree from 
which you procured the bud has ceased to be in the 
original tree and has taken up its abode in the grafted 
tree? We think not. While we recognize that a part 
of the spirit atmosphere is acting on the earth matter 
for its improvement, yet we also recognize that 
another part of it is passing on and on to, % we hope, 
something still higher. But as this brings us to our 
dead line, so to speak, we will not indulge in specula- 
tion. 

Again we will illustrate it in this way : Your body, 
or earth matter, decomposes or is thrown into the 
mills of the gods after delivering a certain portion of 
its work into the spirit atmosphere, this spirit atmos- 
phere reflects back on the earth a portion and projects 
a certain per cent, on to a higher plane. This is, in a 
measure, a constant process of evolving with a slow 
advance towards perfection. 

We will take this opportunity to again illustrate 



, ( 243 ) 

the Mystic Bridge that connects the occult with the 
physical by taking the inodus-operandi of the human 
heart. Here, you will observe, large quantities of the 
blood are forced into the minute veins at the farthest 
extremity of the body, delivering its load of vital 
energy, then returning to the lungs to be again re- 
vitalized, to then repeat, round and round the circle, 
losing a little and gaining a little, or, in other words, 
it takes on a load of unprogressed atoms and in its 
passage over the body advances these atoms one circle 
higher. Xow, if the atmosphere should not be in a 
pure condition, but charged with weak and feeble sub- 
stance, such as the disease germs that were thrown 
off from other weak and imperfectly developed bodies, 
then your blood and body must assume a like con- 
dition and compel you to give off into the surrounding 
atmosphere the same imperfectly developed spirit sub- 
stance. Now, the spirit world is depending upon the 
kind of material you of the earth furnish it to build 
their edifice from. Hence you will see, if you of the 
lower condition forward to them rotten or defective 
material to work upon, how can you expect them to be 
able to reflect hack to you a healthy spirit atmos- 
phere? This applies not only to the matter, but to 
the thought, and this round-and-round process of ad- 
vancing and receding is from the first undeveloped 
atom of life and matter to the highest state of spirit 
condition that we have any knowledge of and may be 
recognized by you, just as when you watch the incom- 
ing tide on the ocean ; you see the wavelets rolling up 
on the sand (of time), then just as surely receding; 
you will notice that, perhaps, the second and third 



( 244 ) 

waves do not reach the height of the first. This was not 
an accident, bnt was caused by other forces (disease 
germs, etc. ) not acting at that moment on the surface 
as they should. 

How many forces are acting on matter of which 
you have not the slightest idea ! In this manner are 
the affairs of families, cities, nations, and finally the 
world itself, effected for its advancing and retrograd- 
ing motion. When you of the earth or a part of the 
earth are involved in war, which again involves blood- 
shed, hatred, vindictiveness, then retaliation (pause 
here and consider), what must be the quality of the 
atmosphere you are projecting onto the spirit world 
for it to refine and reflect back? Can you wonder at 
the retrograde motion of civilization — i. e. the dark 
ages? This law acts on all organisms from the 
smallest monad, whether it be animal, vegetable, 
mineral, or spirit, the one depending upon the kind 
of support it receives from the other, whether its pro- 
gress shall be rapid or slow, higher or lower. For all 
strength, intelligence, and influence the spirit world 
(which is the sun's family) is depending on the com- 
plete and harmonious unity of the single atoms for its 
existence and power to perpetuate itself, and from 
this known fact we deduce, a priori, that this system 
is continuous ad infinitum. 

If this be the truth, as it certainly is, as far as we 
have any knowledge, then you can readily compre- 
hend that God is not a being, a person, or a thing, hut 
is the accumulation, the essence, and the result of all 
that is, and has had an existence (Pantheism.) Hence 
to pray to this kind of a god for a special favor by an 



( 245 ) 

individual is sheer nonsense, and not common sense. 
Still jou can accomplish much good by prayer when 
large communities unite in a sincere and purely spirit- 
ual desire, by sending out large and constant waves of 
thought matter and by keeping this sincerity up for 
some time, and living up to your desires spiritually. 
By so doing, you will find the same old answer: In 
unity there is strength. 

There are many well-authenticated cases where it 
would appear that a God had intervened in a personal 
manner. This we will explain in this way : Every in- 
dividual of earth has one or more spirit friends who 
take upon themselves the pleasurable duty to accom- 
pany them through their life journey; one of these, 
where there is more than one, assumes the duty of be- 
coming your guardian spirit (Socrates Demon). 
Now, if you should possess strong psychic forces your 
familiar spirit can, at times, use those forces for your 
benefit, such as impressing you of danger, removing 
pain, etc. Sometimes they accomplish this by means 
of vivid dreams; in fact, they resort to all the means 
at their command to accomplish their end. 

Xow, what would be the result of a case of this kind 
where the Christian Scientist kneels in prayer with 
one who was entirely ignorant of the simple truth, and 
has been taught that God was a being? The pa- 
tient, being sick, and also a sensitive to spirit forces 
( although unaware of the fact ) , there also* being some 
one member of the Christian band of scientists present 
who is positive to the patient and mediumistic, the 
spirit friends of the invalid use the two forces to effect 
a cure. The patient knows that he felt some peculiar 



( 246 ) 

force at work on his anatomy, and not being able to 
account for it, he jumps to the conclusion that it was a 
miracle, and if a miracle, then nothing but a God 
could have done it. Alas, alas for the credulity of 
human nature! If the Christian Scientists are right 
in their belief, allow us to ask, in a spirit of fairness, 
why do they not cure all, as this personal God of theirs 
is all potverf Why do they often cure the so-called 
wicked and undeserving and fail to cure the just and 
chosen ones — the preachers, for instance, or them- 
selves? Why do they succeed in curing one disease 
on John Jones and fail to cure another and apparent- 
ly insignificant disease on this same John Jones? Let 
the Christian Scientists and " Holy Bones " explain 
this in a rational manner. 

Our explanation is this : The human body is mechan- 
ically constructed by a uniting of two or more atoms 
of matter together for a purpose; this produces an 
organ. Then two or more atoms again come together 
in the same object for another purpose; this produces 
organism, for you must understand that it is not an 
organ or an organism until at least two atoms come 
together and establish a battery of the positive and 
negative. Eight at this point, by the joining of the two 
units or atom lives, is produced or is born a life over 
the two atom lives which we have designated the first 
over-life. This may be a human life, apple life, or a 
mineral life, and, in this first condition, it may 
continue for ages and ages before an opportunity pre- 
sents ; elf for any further progress. 

Thai you may fully understand us, we will elucidate 
it thus: Richard joins his resources with John and 



( 247 ) 

thereby forms an Organized one body for a precon- 
ceived purpose ; they have a set of laws to govern this 
body, which is the over-life of this body. Now this 
over-life or organized body can go on increasing its 
membership for the mutual benefit of the whole over- 
life. Some of the members become obstreperous to 
such an extent as to be felt by the whole body (i. e. dis- 
eased). The organization (body) seeks to apply a 
remedy. Now, whether this remedy shall be success- 
ful or not depends on the nature of the disease affect- 
ing the sub-organization. It may be, as in the first 
cure, of such a nature as to be easily subdued, and 
again, it may have been so quietly at work, like some 
seditions of state, as to be beyond control. If it was a 
miracle in the first cure, why does not the miracle suc- 
ceed in the second case? 

How much more rational to say that God or life 
accomplishes its work in this way. Take the people 
of darkest Africa, for instance. The civilized or 
spiritually inclined and advanced nations of the earth, 
by a constant and continued unity, are throwing their 
persuasive powers on this people ; not only with guns 
and powder, but by examples of Christianity, in at- 
tending their sick and those wounded in war and by 
the conscientious services of the true missionary. 
You will perceive that, slowly, this is having its sav- 
ing effect. All such moves require time. Man, in his 
eagerness to rush ahead, is inclined to ignore time, 
while time ignores not anything, not even the atom. 

Of what avail is one man's voice or desire in your 
Congress? 'T is but a drop in the bucket. But apply 
the voice of the united whole of these atoms (people) ! 



( 248 ) 

'T was they who produced your Congress, and, in like 
manner, they (the atoms) produced yo ur God (Life). 
Man, in fact, is a God, if he only knew it, and of which 
he may get at least a glimpse when viewed in this man- 
ner. 

As the various nations constitute the whole world, 
and it Avould not be complete without all, so also the 
single nation would not be complete without the single 
individual that comprises its whole; nor would the 
individual or person be complete without the entire 
number of atoms that constitute his entire being. 
Therefore, we will suggest to you that you, in your 
mind, separate each individual atom that constitutes 
the entire earth and give to them their freedom by tak- 
ing away the individual atom's power to attract. This 
you will have to do, for not one or a dozen are the 
tvhole earth. 

Now, let us ask, where would your boasted power of 
the earth be? Is not each single atom a power within 
itself? Did it not come from out of space to join an- 
other atom? And was it not by this very addition of 
one atom at a time lending its proportion-share of 
force and intelligence and matter that constitutes and 
is our earth? Do you not see that it is this very prin- 
ciple of a unity of the units, and this alone, that pro- 
duces all of your life and over-life? Is it not the 
single individual soldier (the unit) that makes up 
your powerful army? Or the one single stone, united 
to another, that constitutes your great pyramid? 
Now, please apply this principle of accumulative 
force, matter, and thought to the universe of a wheel 
within a wheel, ad infinitum. Does it not convey you 
outside of all human comprehension? 






( 249 ) ■ 

Let your imagination (for at this point yon have 
no other evidence) conceive of all the accumulated es- 
sence of all the various systems of sun-circles within 
sun- circles, as Ave have illustrated them elsewhere. 
Would not this immense outer sphere truly represent 
th a very greatest, the last, and the end of all concen- 
trated life, energy, force, intelligence, and wisdom? 
Here is something — a God, a life — that man can grasp, 
his mind can realize — a something that you know 
does exist; you are able to recognize it in a tangible 
manner by its effect on matter. Now, draw you a 
comparison with that mythological person, being, 
thing, or idea that came out of nothing. " Ex nihilo, 
nihil fit." 

If this is good logic or philosophy — that because I 
know I am, I must be the results of a cause. Well, to 
accommodate you we will say granted, and see where 
it leads us. Why, to a first cause of a purely mystical 
God. Then, by your own argument, if God is a being 
and exists, he must have come from a cause; for out 
of nothing, nothing comes. If this is logic or common 
sense, then we have mistaken the meaning of common 
sense. 

When we come to consider the limited amount of 
real knowledge those old medieval godmakers, Bible- 
builders, whale-producers, ark stories, pancake world, 
with its seventh day or holy river of Josephus thrown 
in, with a Moses who buried his own body, and then 
returned to write about it, would it be any wonder if 
this same Moses, gifted as he would have been with 
such miraculous power, should go a step farther and 
utter a still more brazen lie to a people gifted with 



( 250 ) 

such extraordinary credulity, and declare he had 
spoken face to face with a man-made God? 

Can you blame Huxley for doing a little creating 
on his own line when he creates life from a dead lob- 
ster by transferring it to a live man? And then, when 
he finds himself in the same dilemma as these ancient 
God-builders — such as nothing can from nothing come 
— he, like these same ancient Bible-builders, reverses 
his engine and creates life again by transferring the 
dead man to the live lobster. 

In those days it was, Believe what I say, or follow 
Joan of Arc, Bruno, and others to the stake. But as 
no such conditions as those now confront us, we may 
be permitted to ask Mr. Huxley's admirers if they 
would kindly be a little more previous and inform us 
where the lobster got its life before man existed, and 
where man got his life before the lobster existed. If 
it be so that out of nothing nothing comes, then it 
would appear to us as but a fair postulate that what 
was good evidence for the goose should be equally as 
good for the gander. 

What a pity it was that those old Bible-builders 
were not better informed as regards the size of the 
Dog-star and the probable extent of infinite space. 
Now please consider this problem : plus equals ; 
multiplied by equals ; minus equals ; di- 
vided by equals 0. This is an immutable law of life 
and matter, and a rational, consistent, and compre- 
hensive God. You of the twentieth century have done 
what they should have done — i. e. you do not create 
anything, but assert that neither the spirits nor mor- 
tal can account for Hfe or matter. But you all know 



( 251 ) 

that they exist; we have the tangible, absolute, real- 
istic facts to sustain our assertion — it is not at all 
necessary to force your belief with burning fagots. 

From whence they came or how far in the past they 
have existed is, from its (life) very nature, an utterly 
unknowable question. And as we see that life pos- 
sesses all the attributes of an imaginary personal 
God, except the power to create (a so-called act which 
has never yet been proven), we will lay the two propo- 
sitions before you for a fair and reasonable opinion : 
thus, I know that I am because I exist ; upon examin- 
ing myself, I find that I am composed of atoms of 
matter, and that these atoms possess life. I now seek 
to know the source and composition of this life. All 
that I can learn is that it is not a physical thing, but, 
as far as reason can go in the past, it always existed, 
I know it is the power and intelligence that produces 
and controls all matter. As to what it is and whence 
it came, I do not know. This is human reason. 

And now for the old proposition — I know that I am 
because I exist; and as I know that out of nothing 
nothing comes, then I will trace the cause of my exist- 
ence from some other cause, which compels me to 
again seek a cause. Like Huxley, I find myself in a 
dilemma. Now, how will I extract myself? I will do 
it thus : There must be a great personal being, a God, 
(must be is good, very good, indeed,) and, naturally, 
a mechanical God, who always existed. (Ahem, 
ahem ! ) About six thousand years ago, for the first 
time, this mechanical God awakes. How far back in 
the millions of past ages this God lay sleeping only he 
can say. But he instantly realizes his miraculous 



( 252 ) 

power to overcome this naught plus naught equals 
naught, naught multiplied by naught equals naught, 
naught minus naught equals naught, and create it 
thus : Naught minus naught equals one. These same 
ancients found that this one is also endowed with mi- 
raculous power — hence he, the one created, is a Holy 
Ghost. Just what kind of a ghost that is or how they 
found him out, deponent sayeth not, as no one has 
ever seen this thing, gentleman or holy, sufficiently 
plain to know it. Ghosts there may be, but just what 
distinguishing ear-marks exist between this holy and 
a common ghost, we know not. However, prudence, 
my friend, is sometimes (especially in olden times) a 
virtue, and if you do not know, then believe or be 
damned, like Bruno and others ( while I '11 be damned 
if I believe) . 

Modern phenomena in the last half century have 
produced a tangible ghost (spirit) — tens of thousands 
of them ; not in an obscure burning bush, but over all 
the civilized world where an ordinary man can see, 
feel, and hear them, and where you are at perfect lib- 
erty to judge from the evidence of your own senses — 
and no fear of being damned, either. 

And now, my friend, we have placed the two views 
squarely before you. It is for you to exercise your 
own common sense and decide, as any fair and im- 
partial juror should do, as to which is the true meta- 
physical solution. 



( 253 ) 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

WHAT ARE LIFE AND MATTER COMPOSED OF? 

( September 7th. ) 

Is it possible for you to cross the dead-line and tell 
me what life and matter are composed of? And if not, 
can you give me a reasonable conjecture? 

Through this entire work, from its beginning up to 
the present time, little by little, as the opportunity 
offered, have we endeavored to shed such light upon 
the above question as you could receive and digest. 
It may be possible for us to go a step farther. We will 
see. 

In our last article, we frequently capitalized the 
term Unit. Now we will ask you to try to realize how 
exceedingly small and apparently insignificant a thing 
a unit is. As we have before stated, it is the next 
thing to nothing. And, while those old ancient Bible- 
builders shot closer to the mark than they at the time 
dreamed of when they produced their ghost of a para- 
dox to provide a base of retreat when pressed too hard 
for an answer, — i. e. their " Ex nihilo, nihili fit," — and 
as science has lonj? since acknowledged that matter is 
indestructible, — which is to acknowledge that it has 
no end, — now, does not your own common sense teach 
you that a thing that has no end could not have a be- 



(254) 

ginning? If this be the truth, — and we think it is, 
does it not carry you into the infinite? Hence it is un- 
knowable — the dead-line. 

Now, please consider: Is not this explanation in 
perfect harmony with the philosophy of " Out of noth- 
ing, nothing conies? " 

We will explain it in this way : While the unit or 
atom did not come from nothing, yet it was the very 
next thing to nothing — i. e. life and matter ; and while 
in this state of a single unit it is of far less importance 
as a thing of power than is one single drop of water to 
the mighty ocean. That you may grasp this, we will 
say that it is a million times less than a drop of water, 
as one drop of water is divided into many more parts 
than a million. The explanation is found in the Unity. 

You are accustomed to exercise your reason from a 
physical thing — an object. Long habit of considering 
that — only that — which you see is real has beclouded 
your better judgment. We have endeavored to teach 
you (and we know that we have succeeded) that the 
reverse is the real fact. 

Now, if you will take this one single atom and fol- 
low it on its journey as we have described it in the 
article headed " The First Eealization of Life in 
Space," and at the same time keep in .your mind its 
almost utter insignificance, when you try to recognize 
it as an existing thing. Then consider this one, single, 
infinite atom as the very first cause of all causation 
(if there ever was a first cause). Now, you have but 
to change one Biblical word that reads, " In the be- 
ginning was God," and let it read, " in the beginning 
was an atom" Then you will see all necessity for any 






( 255 ) 

belief whatever or subterfuge to hide your ignorance 
of the simple truth is swept away. Man has been 
wrongly taught that that which was created cannot be 
greater than the creator. 

This is a false and pernicious doctrine, and should 
be corrected, as it only leads the young investigator 
into those false roads which, in turn, lead to false 
Gods. There is no such thing as create; and it should 
have been left, by accident or design, in Noah's ark. 
To create is to produce some thing out of nothing — an 
absurdity that any one claiming a modern education 
should be ashamed to acknowledge. It has the ten- 
dency to cause the young student to infer that that 
which was built or produced cannot be greater than 
the builder or producer. Now, what a false position 
such a conclusion would leave the student in! He 
would find himself utterly unfitted for an inventor. 

Are not all objective things or organisms produced 
or built up from the very least of all things, the atom? 

Man and spirit can only recognize life and matter 
when in a vast, accumulated form of unity, and then 
very imperfectly. You cannot see, smell, taste, touch, 
or hear either life or force. You recognize them by a 
certain effect that they produce on matter. Habit 
makes you say, " I felt the force of a blow," — but you 
are wrong. You felt the effect or saw the change. 

By removing the life, you have no force. Now, if 
you could instantly remove the life of all the atoms 
of your body, that moment your body would vanish, 
disappear, leaving not even a sign of its existence, 
so fine would be the atomic division. It is the power 
derived from the atomic life that holds your body and 



( 256 ) 

all other objects together. This is as far as we can 
assist your understanding as regards life, until later 
on. ( See Chapter XXXVII— the key. ) 

And now as to matter. We would say you may be 
able to delve deeper into the subject possibly, if viewed 
in this manner. Here we find for the first time, in this 
little volume, that we are obliged to put forward an 
assumption, a priori, and will caution you at this 
point that we only do so in our great desire to assist 
you in your endeavors to reach beyond the dead-line, 
or into the infinite. Hence we shall expect you to 
receive it only as an opinion; for you must remember 
that all beliefs are but shadowy forms arising on the 
horizon of truth, and until proven true, must be han- 
dled with care. 

Matter is the offspring or effect of life; it is the 
expression of life, or life expressed. Take away the 
life, which means the energy, force, motion, and intel- 
ligence, and what have you left? Virtually nothing, 
or a thing so near akin to nothing — so far at least as 
human understanding goes — as to be unrecognizable. 
And if it did not cease to exist entirely, then infinite 
space would be filled with a chaotic, inert mass of 
atomic dust. While your human senses cannot grasp 
life, physically speaking, life itself has prepared the 
way for its own recognition by producing in man 
(matter), through the unity of atoms, your so-called 
five physical senses; and it is by your power to me- 
chanically apply these senses to matter, which you 
cannot do to life, that you are made aware of the exist- 
ence and power of life — i. e. thought, force, and sub- 
stance. 



( 257 ) 

Now, imagine yourself standing in space, ten mil- 
lions of miles from any object excepting light. Here 
you find — what? Apparently nothing. And yet you 
are for the first time in your physical existence sur- 
rounded by that only which is real in its first and orig- 
inal form — i. e. the elementary atoms of substance. 
You have asked us, What is matter composed of? As 
far as you of the earth have investigated it, you have 
declared it to be composed of sixty-five different sub- 
stances ; and, whether it be more or less, it is sufficient 
for our purpose. 

You are now standing in what seems to you a void ; 
yet you have at this moment all about you the very 
essence of all these various substances — iron, tin, oxy- 
gen, etc., and we can only answer you that they are 
just what you have called them. 'T is only a name. 
We might offer you another name, but it would con- 
vey no other truth ; and, as we have frequently stated, 
we agree with Immanuel Kant, that your world and 
all objective matter therein is not the real, first, and 
unchangeable state of matter. It (your world) is 
only matter on a mission or journey, the same as an 
apple or soap-bubble. For a little while you seem to see 
it, and then you don't. It is like the clouds. Vast 
quantities of atoms of oxygen and hydrogen unite for 
a purpose out of the invisible, do their work, and 
again disappear — return, we may say, to their real 
home or condition — a mere passing event. 

Hence, you will see that it is but a waste of time to 
even try to penetrate the infinite. Therefore, to be 
candid with you, we are obliged to call it the Dead- 
Line. 



( 258 ) 

(February 20, 1898.) 

[About five months later, or on February 20, 1898, 
I again asked the question, " What is life? " forget- 
ting that I had already asked the question. 4 Hence I 
insert it here. The reader will observe that it is a con- 
tinuation of this chapter. — C. H. Foster.] 

This is a question so vague and yet so far-reaching 
that we feel as though we should be allowed consider- 
able charity if our words shall not come up to your ex- 
pectation, and shall deal with the question after our 
own peculiar idea of free thought; and, if we shall 
succeed in furnishing you with any new light on the 
subject, we will be pleased, indeed. 

First — It has been the prevailing custom of intel- 
lectual minds to say that they recognize the existence 
of life by its effect on matter. Now, is this a fact? Do 
they recognize life or do they recognize thought and 
force? Has the word " recognized " a double mean- 
ing? That is, do they mean that they knoiv, or do they 
mean that they believe that such a thing as life exists? 
If they know it for a demonstrated fact, through or by 
the evidence of one or more of the five physical senses, 
as a scientific truth, where is their evidence? As they 
are always very particular to demand physical evi- 
dence of the truth of any phenomena brought to their 
notice, they should not object to the same rule being 
applied to themselves. 

It will not do for them to make an assertion on their 
own responsibility that they know that life exists, as 
it is recognized in all so-called living things. This 
would be begging the question; for, as there is no 



(259) 

dead, then all things must be alive, and it would still 
leave the question open — What is life? 

When they use the term Life, they surely must 
mean something. They tell you that this man's life 
has gone out, departed — he or it is dead. Gone out 
means to move, or it could not have departed. Now 
we will ask them what kind of a thing it was that had 
motion. Death is supposed to be (i. e. believed to be) 
the opposite to life ; and as it is with that which men 
call life so it is with death — you have no actual knowl- 
edge of the existence of either the one or the other. 

You smile at the simplicity of the sun-worshiper. 
He recognizes that, for a time, he exists, when sudden- 
ly he ceases to exist. He sees the part the sun seems 
to play in nature. It is a great something of infinite 
power that he can sense by his sight and feeling; 
therefore, he believes he knows that the sun is the 
cause of his existence. He, in his turn, smiles at you 
when you speak of life, and asks you what you know 
about it. You answer him, " Nothing — absolutely 
nothing," but that jou believe, from what you know of 
thought, that something must have caused thought 
and so you have given this imaginary something, this 
m ust have been, the name of life ; and continuing your 
reply to him, you say, "After all, my dear fellow, 
don't you know that I don't know for a fact, whether 
this imaginary thing which we call life is a condition, 
a place, a thing or a circumstance." Alas, poor La- 
place! we wonder after all if his great sun was any 
greater as a truth than this same sun-worshiper's sun 
on a smaller scale. 



( 260 ) 

Thought you can for a known fart assert does 
have an actual physical existence, and is capable of 
demonstration as a thing, for it is now acknowledged 
that it can be transferred from one individual to an- 
other and to a great distance. You have also the 
power to depress or stimulate it and can demonstrate 
to a certain extent its quantity and quality; there- 
fore, it is not in any sense an imaginary thing, though 
it is the actual dead-line or limit of human compre- 
hension. 

You will perceive by these remarks that Life is but 
a name. The credulous call it God, and some even go 
so far as to call it a personal being. Agnostics call it 
Nature, and we might ask them, what is Nature? 
Spiritualists call it the Great Spirit. We have, for 
the sake of a point of departure, called it Life, or 
Over-Life ; but, after all is said, 't is but a name, and, 
we may add, an imaginary one, for nothing is known 
to have an actual existence beyond thought. 

And now, my dear friend, we do not wish to be 
understood as denying the existence of a something 
still greater and far more superior than thought, for 
that would be to undo all of that which we have at- 
tempted to do by this little volume; and we do know 
that it is on and on far beyond the lower spirit com- 
prehension where more knowledge is gained, but 
where that knowledge ends. // it has an end, we must 
truthfully say we do not know. Our object in writing 
this chapter was to try and have you realize that Life 
was but a name, and means to represent the very es- 
sence of cause, and to further show you that, whatever 
it was, from its very nature it was infinite, and for 



( 261) 

man to say that he recognizes Life by its effect on mat- 
ter is only an endeavor on his part to escape the use 
of the term belief. 

By these few additional remarks, however, we hope 
that you will more fully realize the utter impossi- 
bility of Mr. Huxley or any other scientist being able 
to put forward as a scientific fact that they possess 
any knowledge of the basis of Life. Nor do we ob- 
ject to your substituting for the word basis, physical 
basis; for until man knows what Life is composed of, 
how is it physically possible for him to demonstrate 
its physical basis? By what particular earmarks, 
may we ask, do you know that it is a physical thing? 
Have we not the scientific right to demand of Mr. 
Huxley that he shall produce his unquestionable proof 
that Life is a physical thing before we accept his as- 
sertion that he has found the physical basis of Life? 

PSYCHO-PHYSICS. 

You will perceiye that after physical matter has 
been converted into spirit atmosphere, spirit, or im- 
ponderable matter, by its passage through the brain 
cells as think, that this matter still accompanies your 
physical body through its earth journey, and is, in 
fact, the real part of you — the I AM — and at this 
stage it is gathering other matter (thought), as well 
as rejecting matter for the purpose of preparing the 
way for yet another change, when it shall be necessary 
to separate itself from the physical body and assume 
a real spirit body. While this matter is accompany- 
ing your physical body, and before it leaves this body 
to become a spirit, is it not at this time in an inter- 



( 262 ) 

mediate state? i. e. it is not what you can properly 
call physical matter; neither has it advanced into 
either the real spirit or soul condition (the metaphy- 
sical ) . Yet it is now generally acknowledged by your 
French and German scientists, through their experi- 
ments with hypnotism and lunacy, as an existing con- 
dition apart from the gray matter of the brain. 

Now, conceive of this matter as occupying the 
bridge which we have frequently mentioned in our 
former remarks as that which spanned the chasm 
lying between the ponderable and imponderable 
world. You could not say that it was physical, nor 
could you call it metaphysical. Tlien would it not 
exist as a psycho-physical matter, operating in a field 
of fluid far finer than any ether that man at present 
has any knowledge of, and, of which we have before 
hinted, as yet to be harnessed for the benefit of man? 
Psycho-physical, or between the tivo ivorlds. 

THE BEGINNING OF SEX. 

At what point in time does sex begin? In answer- 
ing this question, that you may fully and clearly un- 
derstand us, we are obliged to again appeal to your 
forbearance while we take a retrospective view of 
some of the fundamental precepts which we have al- 
ready established. 

Your soul, spirit, or the I AM of you, is entirely in- 
dependent of your physical body. Your body, or any 
other physical body, is composed of the original 
elementary atoms of matter or substance. This mat- 
ter is void of sex, and assumes the same position and 
responsibility in your body or any other physical 



( 263 ) 

body as the single brick in a building — simply as so 
much matter in bulk, and nothing more. You will 
probably understand us better when we call your at- 
tention to the fact that your body is composed of oxy- 
gen, iron, sulphur, and other simple substances. Now, 
you will not contend that the atoms of iron, oxygen, 
etc., are male and female; nor can you with any de- 
gree of reason attribute sex to any of the sixty-five 
simple substances that enter into the composition of 
any physical object or organism, and, as we have be- 
fore stated, all physical matter must become an organ- 
ism of at least two atoms before it can become an 
object. No one thing alone can of itself be an organ- 
ized body. If so, how would you proceed to disorgan- 
ize it? 

At first the soul, or I AM, of the germ is as unim- 
portant and insignificant, if we may be excused for 
using the expression as the germ of the object itself; 
but as other atoms are attracted to the object, it rises 
in importance, and in just the same ratio does the 
value of the I AM increase. Though many of the old 
school of scientists are inclined to sneer at the occult 
or spirit of things, and would have you accept Mr. 
Huxley's idea of the protoplasm as the physical basis 
of Life, yet how can they deny that organism begins 
where we have shown? Again, we will ask these old- 
school scientists, Are these first two atoms, when they 
come together, in the physical or metaphysical state? 
As matter or substance, they cannot be soul or spirit. 
You have the elephant on your hands, gentlemen ; will 
you receive it as physical, and if not, would it not be 
well to kill it and feed it to the lobster? Dispose of it 



( 264) 

you must iu some, let us hope, more rational manner. 
With this prelude we will now endeavor to answer 
your question of sex. 

After two atoms are attracted together, this is the 
begw '-ig of organism or organized Life, which you 
may better understand as the beginning of the con- 
struction of a machine, which may also be called a 
beginning of the physical organism. At this point 
the law of positive and negative first asserts its au- 
thority over matter; if the positive should prove the 
stronger of the two, then the sex would be male ; but 
if the negative atom should be the stronger, then the 
sex would be female. You will understand that sex 
cuts no figure in the great Over-soul of Life; sex is 
merely a part of the physical or bodily construction of 
the machine — the same as the arm, the eye, or the 
color of the hair, etc., and merely has its functions to 
perform as one part of the organization. 

While we use the terms positive and negative at 
this stage of our explanation, it is because they are 
the most comprehensive words that we can make use 
of to fit this almost insignificant stage of a human 
soul, and we do not wish to be understood as implying 
that the female from this time on remains in the nega- 
tive condition. You will remember that at this point 
you have but two single atoms of matter to consider — 
the very dawn of a human life or organism. You must 
look at it in this light : that as the negative principle 
predominates at the beginning, it will naturally have 
the controlling influence during the travels of that 
body in its earth development; but as it takes on 
other atoms, the preponderance of influence of these 



( 265 ) 

innumerable atoms may be positive. Hence this fe- 
male, when developed as a fully formed human body, 
may assume the positive relation between man and 
wife, or what you may call a very pronounced or com- 
bative woman, and this law will apply to the male. 
How very frequently you meet with effeminate men 
and masculine women! 

Does this germ first attach itself to the male or fe- 
male in seeking an opportunity to unfold or advance? 
When you look over the field you will observe that, as 
a rule, the male is by long odds the stronger and most 
positive of the two. This is a part of the natural law 
of life and is partly caused by the first germ being at- 
tracted to the male in its first effort to advance. The 
ovum is only a place of habitation to protect and 
nourish this incipient germ. Until this germ enters 
the grain of corn after it is planted in the earth, there 
is no quickening process takes place; in fact, this is 
the cause of quickening. If there should be some 
serious disaffection of the organized body of the grain 
of corn, then there would be no sympathetic attrac- 
tion between the germ and the grain, and hence no re- 
production. 

In some vegetables this is effectd by the pollen of 
the male plant being conveyed by the wind — such as 
the strawberry, etc., the blossom acting in the same 
capacity to the strawberry as the ovum to the human 
organism. Sterility in plants or animals is caused by 
some irregularity in the organization of one of the 
parents which prevents the various organs from per- 
forming their allotted work. This is particularly 
noticeable in the hybrids — the mules, for instance. 



( 266 ) 

By this disarrangement of the organs some parts of 
the whole body may be extra-invigorated at the ex- 
pense of some other part of the body. This would in- 
duce a larger, and sometimes stronger, crop from the 
first cross, when, by trying to again re-cross, you may 
find complete sterility. This depends on the nature 
of the two parents. 

You will find that this same law will apply to many 
of the metals. Some it will strengthen while others 
it will weaken, and in other alloys they will refuse to 
amalgamate the second time; that is, they will lose 
some of the virtue gained by the first compounding. 
It not infrequently occurs that two sets of the first 
organized germs find lodgment in the same ovum, or 
blossom. If these two sets of organisms should be in 
almost perfect harmony with each other and the ovum, 
or blossom, the results would be twins, or a double 
fruit; whereas, if inharmony existed, both might be 
rejected, which would compel them to again seek a 
more favorable opportunity to advance. 



( 267 ) 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

EDUCATED MEDIUMS. 

In looking over the field I observe that at least 
ninety per cent of the mediums, or instruments chosen 
by the spirits to serve their purpose, are from the mid- 
dle class of people, and seldom from those highly edu- 
cated. Why is this thus? 

You, my friend, being a skilled mechanic, allow us 
to ask, If you wish to perpetuate your skill and knowl- 
edge of the same to future generations, whom would 
you select as the most fitting instrument to teach — 
one who had passed the meridian of life and become 
hardened and set in his ways, and whose ideas had 
become fossilized in ignorance of those secrets in 
which you excel? or would you not select a young per- 
son whose mind was susceptible of expansion, one 
who stood to you in a negative position, and whose 
ideas had not yet had time to become set? 

At this point we will again call your attention to 
the well-known fact that, while education is of the ut- 
most importance to mankind, yet it has its undesir- 
able features as well ; i. e. you can educate a parrot 
and teach a pig, etc. By this we would be understood 
as implying that not one in a thousand who are so 
completely crammed with scholasticism ever rise to 
a Washington, Lincoln, Howe, etc. Why is this? 
We will tell you. 



( 268 ) 

All great minds are born free, and not made so by 
education alone. If this were not the case, why do 
you not produce a greater per cent, of great minds 
from your school of letters? By studying the early 
history of all great men, you will find that in their 
very childhood they showed a disposition to rebel 
against restraint and old-fogy conventionality. Their 
playmates knew them as odd and eccentric, while 
kind and gentle, as a rule ; yet they wanted to be free, 
to follow the natural bent of an independent soul. 
When such souls as these pass through your colleges 
they never sacrifice their independence of thought. 
While paying all due respect to their teachers and 
their lessons, yet they can and do rise above all teach- 
ings that do not appeal to their own common sense. 
To tell this kind of a mind that this or that theory is 
true, because all the old professors, your own father, 
and your priest taught it years and years before your 
time, will not be accepted by them. In fact, you are 
well aware that it is a prevailing custom among at 
least three fourths of your teachers to early impress 
upon their pupils, either in scholasticism, religion, 
politics, or mechanics, that to deviate from the old 
orthodox custom is siniply sacrilegious, and not to be 
thought of for a moment. 

With this false foundation to build on, begun in the 
family in their very infancy, is it any wonder so many 
young minds — children of rich parents generally— go 
to the higher institutions of learning with a set pur- 
pose of securing their sheepskin with as little exertion 
to themselves as may be, after all the originality that 
might have been encouraged to blossom had been 



( 269 ) 

frowned down in their early infancy, thereby causing 
the budding mind to become indifferent to the intrin- 
sic value of real knowledge of common sense? This 
class of pupils enter your colleges already prepared 
to accept any old thing as truth; for have they not 
already been schooled at home or at Sunday-school 
that it is heresy to deny their parents or priest. We 
embrace all creeds and all political parties. Why, 
't is even said among you, that to this day there are 
still to be found men in Arkansas who never fail to 
cast a ballot for Andrew Jackson for President! 
However, we do not vouch for the truth of that. 

Having now prepared the way that we might be 
properly understood, we will answer your question 
in this manner : A large majority of those whom you 
class as educated received such an education as a mere 
automaton. It was necessary to move in our set or to 
go to Congress ; in fact, we should be able to explain 
to Pa how Joshua scientifically stopped the sun and 
how Xoah brought his South American menagerie 
over the Atlantic Ocean to stock his ark. When you 
come to interview this class of people on what they 
actually know about the occult science, you will find 
that they have very little to spare ; yet they think they 
know it all. This leaves them in a positive condition 
to such an extent that the spirits find it almost im- 
possible to approach them for the purpose of develop- 
ing their psychic forces — i. e. the tone of the light 
through their windows would be colored to suit their 
previous set ideas, while, on the other hand, if we 
select a person not so well educated, we find him 
much more easily handled — that is, we have fewer 
false gods to eradicate. 



( 270 ) 

Take your own case, for instance. You will remem- 
ber some seven years ago, when we were giving you a 
series of independent writing seances through Mrs. 
Fairchild's forces, we cautioned you not to look at any 
history of Egypt while we were engaged in the writ- 
ings, as you would bring with you into the seance- 
room such a positive element that it would hinder us 
from writing as we wished to ; that is, you would see 
something in some history which might not be entire- 
ly true, This would become seated or fixed on your 
mind, and as we drew from you our knoivledge of Eng- 
lish and other forces, as well as from the medium, 
then our communication would be colored uncon- 
sciously by your thoughts. After we were through 
with the writings, then we gave you permission to 
compare them with history ; but you found nothing in 
any history about the canal I had the pleasure of 
describing to you until a few months ago, when you 
found it in a daily paper. 

You will understand that one of the greatest diffi- 
culties the spirits have to- contend with is to find an 
instrument of intelligence, yet, at the same time, free 
from a priori opinion. Naturally, education brings in 
its train a more or less fixed opinion. This is not so 
easily overcome, even by the spirits. We wish it were ; 
for we would be enabled to make far more rapid and 
satisfactory progress. 

? T is often asked why females are so often selected 
by the spirits. For the very reason above given, 
women have not so fixed an opinion from education ; 
they go more by intuition. Ask a woman why she 
does this or that ; is not her almost invariable answer, 



( 271 ) 

"Well, because — just because, if you must know; 
there now." We find at this present time a cry is be- 
ing sent forth for more educated mediums. This is 
easier to ask than grant ; spirits are not gods. 

You will also understand that, as the uneducated 
are the easiest to approach, this also leaves the door 
open for the lower spirits to enter, and as like at- 
tracts like, this will account for so much fakirism; 
for, of course, it is to be admitted that there is a 
greater deficiency of a nice sense of moral responsi- 
bility among the uneducated than the educated. As 
the spirits are, by this condition of things, compelled 
to seek such instruments as they can most easily mold 
to their service, they naturally draw from such as of- 
fer the least resistance to their psychic forces. Tak- 
ing this fact into consideration, it is not at all strange 
if some of our selections should prove unworthy. 

Our work being mostly of a mental character, to 
project our thoughts into a vessel already filled with 
old ideas is far more difficult than to fill an empty ves- 
sel as we are first required to get rid of the matter 
that has, to a large extent, permeated the old vessel. 
Much of the old matter we speak of as objectionable is 
caused by your very poor and meaningless English 
language, of which we think it appropriate to give you 
a few samples such as : If you want to write rite right, 
you must not write it wright, nor write, but rite; for 
then you know you have written right. If the conduc- 
tor wishes to warn his passengers of danger in cross- 
ing a bridge, he tells them to look out for the bridge, 
when he meant for them to look in or not to look out. 

You teach of darkness, cold, inanimation, vacuum, 



( 272 ) 

and such false gods t© your children. ? T is true you 
do so in an indirect manner, as though they had au 
actual existence. This rubbish must all be emptied 
from the vessel before we can properly use it. Now, 
please compare our old Greek language to yours. 
Those of you who are familiar with that most expres- 
sive, clear, and grand language will not hesitate to 
affirm it the most beautiful and comprehensive lan- 
guage that the world ever knew. We would not for 
a moment have you entertain the idea that the spirits 
are opposed to the very highest possible point of at- 
tainment in education; only let it be more compre- 
hensive and expressive of the known truth, and in 
such a manner as not to be misconstrued or paradoxi- 
cal in its meaning. In other words, get rid of those 
old obsolete expressions that have long since outlived 
their usefulness. 'T is the law of matter — especially 
of the genus homo — to seek for excelsus; but were 
you enabled to grasp all perfection at one grab, this 
would be the end of evolution, and all matter would 
have finished its mission. 

Educate your mediums? Yes, by all means; but 
do not lose sight of the fact that modern spiritualism 
is yet in its infancy. Rome was not built in a day. 
There are a great many obstacles to be removed before 
this much desired end can be accomplished. In meas- 
uring the advance of evolution you must not over- 
look the fact that all past time is but a drop in the 
ocean, and so it is with the future. Evolution ignores 
not the insignificant atom, for well it knows that to 
destroy the atom is to undermine its own foundation 
and bring its work to a close. The moral of 



( 273 ) 

which is : You should uot sneer at the Hydeville raps 
(the atom), or any other raps (critique); neither 
should you cast reflections on the physical mediums 
if some are required to hold their seances in the dark. 
For in your eagerness to attract attention to your- 
self, the friends of Mrs. Drake, Mrs. Fairchild, Miss 
Jenny More, C. Y. Miller, the Bockwell family, and 
many other well-known dark seance or physical 
mediums, who are known to be honest, sincere, chari- 
table, and genuine, may ask some very direct ques- 
tions and also offer you some wholesome advice such 
as: Who is to blame when a fake medium is invited 
on your platform for the purpose of drawing flies to 
an unattractive, so-called inspirational speaker, with- 
out whom you could not attract a corporal's guard? 
If you doubt this, let it be given out in advance of 
your meeting that tests will be given before the lec- 
ture begins, and five minutes' recess after to allow 
those who wish to retire to do so ; this will be a test 
in a double sense of the word ; at least it will prove 
whose bread has the molasses on it. 

If you really wish to get rid of your fakes, first 
test your own officers' ability as to their qualifications 
to judge between a fake and a genuine medium. 
When we look over the field and see so many pushing 
themselves forward as would-be officers and leaders 
that are not as well qualified to pass a pure spiritual 
judgment on an honest or dishonest medium as the 
fake himself, we naturally ask whose fault it is — the 
society who selected your incompetent officers, or the 
fake? Whose duty was it to try, test, and know who 
you were receiving and about to invite the public to 



(274) 

accept on your recommendation? Would you hire a 
clerk or teacher of your own children without first 
carefully inquiring into and testing his abilities? 

These remarks may be a little off-color for a meta- 
physical work, yet we feel them to be appropriate to 
the present occasion ( this 5th of October, 1897 ) , and 
shall offer no apology any further than to add that 
the physical mediums themselves are not interfering 
with your public speakers, nor do they borrow the 
influence of the spiritual press to cast reflection on 
your speakers; neither are they at all concerned 
about their education, but are exceedingly anxious to 
be delivered from their Puseyistic friends, being well 
aware that on them (the physical mediums) alone de- 
pends the proof of spirit return; or, If a man dies, 
shall he live again? Did the great medium, Christ, 
concern himself as to the educational qualifications of 
his disciples, or, rather, did he not look more closely 
as to their charity for others than themselves? 



(275 ) 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

IS THE COURSE OF LIFE AND MATTER FOREVER ONWARD, 
OF DOES IT RETURN AND BEGIN AGAIN? 

If matter was created we are obliged to assume that 
it came out of nothing ; then are we again compelled 
to infer a beginning? Furthermore, if it had a begin- 
ning, then it must have an end, which would return it 
to nothing. 

The human race, as it is represented to-day on 
earth, is to the future as the worm under your feet 
stands as a representative of wisdom, when compared 
to the present human knowledge. 

From a point of reason, it would appear to us that 
we are obliged to accept one of two postulates — that 
life and matter came out of nothing and return to 
nothing, or that it always existed, and hence cannot 
cease to be or change a something to nothing. For the 
sake of truth, we would ask the student to stop at this 
point and try to realize, as a fact, what kind of a posi- 
tion, condition, or supposition a nothing is. Where, 
may we ask, will you go to find nothing? How will 
you recognize or define it? To illustrate what we are 
endeavoring to impress upon your comprehension, 
just try to realize what was the state of, shall we say, 
affairs just previous to so-called creation. You will 
perceive by this that there was no space nor even a 



( 276 ) 

condition ; for these are things, and, as yon conld not 
have any knowledge or evidence, or even a reasonable 
conjecture of a state of nothingness, then we have the 
right to assume that the first postulate is altogether 
untenable and not admissible of even a reasonable be- 
lief. Then we are compelled to accept the second 
proposition, and see if we can find a rational solution 
of the question : If life and matter had no beginning, 
has it an end? And, if no end, does it repeat upon it- 
self, over and over, by reaching a special point in pro- 
gression, to again fall back to its first condition? In 
assuming the affirmative — that matter has no end — we 
have a something tangible to begin with, and as it is 
unnecessary to go over the ground of known facts that 
it has been our pleasure to submit to you for your con- 
sideration as regards to the truth of the evolution of 
matter, we will confine our remarks to the single ques- 
tion, to wit : Does it, life and matter, repeat upon it- 
self or continue to advance to a higher and higher 
condition forever and forever on? 

Now, while we have shown that you have not a 
particle of evidence to support a condition of nothing- 
ness, you do have the positive evidence of the exist- 
ence of matter, and as all our investigations have so 
far been conducted on a purely philosophical rule of 
reason, from cause to effect, in following the atom on 
its upward course to the condition of the soul of 
things, and as at no stage of its journey have we found 
any evidence of a permanent reversal of this law of 
evolution, but find that all known matter is slowly but 
surely advancing onward and upward to the border- 
line of the {at present) limit of human comprehen- 



( 277 ) 

sion, then we are perfectly justified in our conclusions 
that man's knowledge and power of comprehension 
will advance in like proportion, as the great wheel of 
evolution rolls slowly onward in its ceaseless march 
of progression. For, as to-day man's knowledge of 
matter and facts far excels that of primeval man, so 
in the far distant future will your progeny cast a 
backward glance at your history and smile as you now 
smile at primeval man. 

Take this, the dawn of the twentieth century, and 
note the wonderful advance of knowledge during the 
last one hundred years. Nay, you need only go back 
fifty years, and then conceive the same ratio of the de- 
velopment of knowledge at the end of — say only ten 
thousand years hence. You will then be able to 
realize that we are not so very far out in our reckon- 
ing when we designate this as the tail end of the dark 
age; for it is but a fair and reasonable problem in 
retrospection and prospection. Who among you of 
to-c^ay can form the slightest idea of the grand and 
wonderful truths that now lie slumbering in the 
womb of time so remote? Yet you cannot deny that it 
is but a rational view of what may be expected of the 
future. Critics cannot justly class this as a belief, but 
we are willing to admit that it is only evidence a pri- 
on, having as a mathematical basis all past records of 
events, which will allow us to assume such a predica- 
tion as not only possible but also probable. However, 
as we have constantly asserted, all absolute knowledge 
as regards to the future must cease at the dead-line — 
i. e. the home of the soul of things. Nevertheless, we 
feel inclined to give you a metaphysical nut to crack, 



( 278 ) 

in a conjectural sense, as it were, by turning the 
tables on you, and asking you, my friend, a question. 

The question: Would it be improbable that after 
the lapse of — say a billion years — the physical life and 
matter now constituting your planet earth should 
gradually change into the imponderable or spirit at- 
mosphere and assume the condition of a psycho-physi- 
cal sphere or home of the soul of things? 

Such a sphere would naturally be composed of all, 
and only that, which had formerly constituted your 
eo,rth. Then, when this remote time should come, and 
not before, would this newly born sphere assume its 
position among a higher and grander circle of the in- 
finite? Would it not then appear, under this consid- 
eration, that the present spirit world is that locality 
or condition of souls or spirits that the Catholic fra- 
ternity designate as Limbo, Purgatory, Paradise, etc? 
Please look over this little volume and see if you can 
find anything that would seriously conflict with this 
hypothesis. 

We would not for a moment have you think that 
we are throwing this down to the Catholics as a sop, 
as did Le Conte, to appease their wrath; for we can 
assure you it is a matter of utter indifference to us 
what they, or any other sect, may think of this work ; 
in fact, we fully expect all Christian creeds to take 
just as kindly to this work as they did to the work of 
Bruno, Galileo, Voltaire, Paine, Ingersoll, and others. 
But we hope in time to place this volume on the 
shelves of all free libraries, for the use of all who are 
free and choose to read it. However, the student will 
please to bear in mind that we are neither asserting 



( 279 ) 

nor denying the truth of the above, but merely offer 
it as a question to you; for tve do not know the solu- 
tion. 

We would suggest that you first take under con- 
sideration the birth of your world. You first recog- 
nize it as a nebula, in the form of a gaseous body. In 
tkis, its first condition (if it was its first condition), 
it may have, and probably did, continue for a million 
years. At the end of this time it had gradually as- 
sumed a liquid, fiery state, in which it continued — 
say, another million of years. At the end of this peri- 
od, it had formed a crust on the periphery, which con- 
tic ued to thicken for another million of years before 
it had sufficiently cooled to allow of animal life. Dur- 
ing this last million of years, we might class it as in 
the volcanic state, the same as your moon at this 
period of its life now finds itself — not dead, for there 
is no dead — but not as yet sufficiently cooled to admit 
of animal or vegetable life. While a planet is in this 
process of incrustation, the physical results would be 
a constant rending and tearing of the surface, par- 
tially caused by the waters endeavoring to find lodg- 
ment on the surface as the immense heat receded. 
This sudden chilling would cause the surface to 
crack, and the molten mass would find relief by es- 
caping through the crevice. The result would be to 
form a range of mountains with many active volca- 
noes among them, or vents similar to a volcano. 

We will not attempt to fix the length of time that 
lias escaped since the first appearance of animal life 
on the earth planet any further than to call your at- 
tention to the various scientific reports of your best 



( 280 ) 

geologists, who agree in pronouncing it to be several 
hundred thousand years ago (instead of seven thou- 
sand, according to the Biblical account). 

Again we do not deem it inappropriate to place 
another question before you, hoping that you will re- 
ceive our questions with the same frankness that we 
have endeavored to bestow towards yourself. 

If this, your physical world, shall gradually change 
to a spirit world, so-called, it would by so doing be 
the beginning of another change; we will call this, 
for the purpose of illustration, the end of another mil- 
lion of years, or, it may be, a billion. This would tend 
to show that you have not so much evidence in favor 
of a solid or physical world being the real and perma- 
nent condition of matter as the gaseous or imponder- 
able condition, for we would have the first and third 
condition a gaseous body and only the second a pon- 
derable or physical body. Here you will see that the 
evidence is as two to one in favor of the invisible con- 
dition. 

And now the conundrum : What evidence have you 
got that would justify you in denying that the origi- 
nal atoms of matter that first came together for the 
purpose of establishing the nebulous condition of this 
earth were not the advanced product of another 
sphere, lying lower in the scale of progression than the 
earth, which had just reached the end of its life of one 
million years? 

Can youtassert, as a fact, that the ultimate atoms of 
substance as known to your chemists, are the very 
first and original particles of matter that occupy all 
space and had never undergone any other change 



( 281 ) 

whatever until they had first come in contact with 
your physical earth? If you cannot so assert, then 
neither have you the right to deny that the matter now 
in a state of gradual change from the physical to the 
so-called spirit world is not another new sphere in a 
state of formation. 

Again : As this physical world merges into a spirit 
sphere at the end of this, its present condition, may 
not the moon at that time have reached the end of its 
incrustation period and assume the animal age? This 
would be the child following in the footsteps of the 
parent, or, as the old cock crows, the young one 
learns. 

You will perceive that we were correct in the be- 
ginning of this work when we fixed the limit of human 
comprehension as the ultimate atom of matter, and 
not the infinite atom. 

You are accustomed to view the various planets in 
a physical state and from a physical standpoint of 
consideration. Kemember that it is ouly within the 
past fifty years that the attention of your scientists 
has been called to the psychic, through the Rochester 
rappings, hypnotism, thought-transference, etc., which 
is additional proof that you are but the tail of the dark 
age. 

To-day neither man nor spirit has any knowledge 
previous to the ultimate atom or beyond the home of 
the soul of that vast, boundless, amazing eternity, the 
Infinite One. For the solution of one we must cross 
the dead-line of the infinite past, to solve the other 
the dead-line of the future. 



( 282 ) 



CHAPTER XXXV. 

A QUESTION TO ASTRONOMERS. 

After Bruno, LeConte, Descartes, Herschel, La- 
place, Kant, Darwin, and a host of others who have 
failed to account for the Cause of Causation. 

Please, sirs, will you allow me to slide on your cel- 
lar-doors? And I'll let you chew my gum whilst I'm 
sliding. And, if so be, your high-ancl-mightiness ob- 
jects — well, just go ahead with your old ark, for I 
guess it's not a-going to be much of a shoAver anyway ; 
and, if so be it should, then there are plenty of other 
cellar-doors besides your old fossilized incline. How- 
ever, as we intend to pay for this little book before it 
leaves the press, we will take this opportunity to re- 
mind you that it is our calf, and we will lambast it 
just as much as we please, Mother Grundy. So there 
now! 

But, joking aside, gentlemen, are you any nearer to 
the solution to-day than Laplace and Kant were one 
hundred years ago? Have you not let a century pass 
without a mark to your credit in this direction, not- 
withstanding your advantage of a thirty-six-inch tel- 
escope, giant refractors, spectroscopes, etc? And 
why? Was it not that you feared to antagonize the 
clergy? Allow us to ask why you have not more care- 
fully investigated the spirit phenomenon, to see if this 



( 283 ) 

truth would uot give you a better solution of this 
carefully avoided subject than your ready-made sun 
or your Ideal Being? And now, sirs, after these 
probably unnecessary preliminary remarks, we will, 
with your permission, take up first : — 

THE UNTRAINED COMET. 

It is claimed by some astronomers — Kepler for one 
— that some comets are already effete and verging 
into desolation; i. e. disintegrating. Here Kepler 
takes it for granted that the atoms of substance are 
ejected from the body into the tail. If this were 
known to be so, then it might in time be reduced to 
a grease-spot ; if, on the contrary, the comet is a world 
in process of birth by the attractions of atoms out of 
space, is it not more likely that it is gradually ab- 
sorbing the tail into its own body? Did it not first 
accumulate these atoms out of space for some reason- 
able purpose; that is, to form a gaseous body, then 
a fluid body, and so on? 

Again, we will ask, Is there an unrepaired waste? 
Is not all organized matter constantly undergoing a 
process of building up on one side to tear down on the 
other, from the first joining of two atoms for a pre- 
conceived purpose to its full physical development, 
whether it be an organized cell or a dog-star? If be- 
cause some of the comets are partially held in their 
present track by the influence of Jupiter, Saturn, etc., 
does this fact justify us in assuming that they may be 
eventually ejected from them? If so, we may be al- 
lowed to inquire if the same law is not also applicable 
to Saturn, Jupiter, etc. ? Is it not by a pushing and 



( 284 ) 

pulling force — i. e., attraction and repulsion — that all 
globes are held in their respective orbits? Then, 
whether it be a repelling magnetic force from the sun 
or an attractive force from some other body that pro- 
duces a comet's tail, could you reasonably expect any 
other physical result than that the main body of the 
comet is exerting an attraction towards its center of 
these finely attenuated atoms in opposition to a 
counter force which would have a tendency to draw 
out a tail? 

The very fact of the comet having a tail following 
it on its travel through space is the best of evidence 
that the comet possesses the balance of power and may 
gradually absorb its own particles. The very fact of 
some comets having a number of tails pointing in dif- 
ferent directions will serve to show that as many dif- 
ferent counter forces are acting on it. ? T is true that 
some of the atoms may fall by the Avay ; but, like the 
earth planet, is it not also gathering other matter to 
compensate the loss? Does not the earth receive the 
meteorites? 

It has been asked by your scientists why a comet 
becomes reduced in size, say from 300,000 miles in 
diameter to 14,000 miles as it draws near the sun. 
This question, we think, has never been satisfactorily 
answered. We will offer you our opinion on the 
nebular theory. You must first remember that the 
sun is in a fluid state at present, and, while this is an 
apparently fiery mass, yet it is not a consuming fire 
where all is reduced to ashes, but it is an amalgamat- 
ing process where all the various atomic life and sub- 
stance is reduced to one homogeneous fluid mass of 



( 285 ) 

which the people of earth could not have any experi- 
ence or knowledge, as it was at a previous period of 
the earth's fluid condition — i. e. before crystal, vege- 
table, or animal life could have existed. You can 
readily understand that were it a consuming fire, the 
crust of the earth would have been one immense lava- 
bod, volcanic rock, etc. It is a mistaken theory that 
the molten matter discharged from volcanoes comes 
from the original fluid substance now occupying the 
interior of the earth. .That which comes from the vol- 
cano is from chemical combustion now going on in 
the crust of the earth, and is a real consuming fire. 

SHRINKAGE OF A COMET. 

And now for our explanation for the shrinkage of 
the comet as it nears the sun and enlarges again as 
it departs from the sun. The comet is in its first 
stage as an organized body — i. e., a gaseous state. 
The desire and purport of all matter is to advance. 
The sun, being the master center of this solar system, 
or the greatest controlling body, when a babe or 
young world — i. e. a comet — comes close to the sun 
it partakes of the same influence governing the sun, 
and the closer it gets to the sun, the more pronounced 
this influence. As the sun is in a fluid condition at 
present, then all gaseous bodies when approaching it 
are, from the law of sympathetic attraction, inclined 
thereby to also become fluid bodies. This inclination 
to advance from the gaseous state to a fluid one would 
produce a visible shrinkage in the lighter material 
in its endeavor to effect a change into a denser matter. 
After countless ages and often repeated attempts, it 



( 286 ) 

finds at each trial it gains a little, until finally success 
crowns its efforts, and it becomes a fluid body, to 
again go through the same struggle for incrustation. 
We deem it necessary to remark that if there were 
a resisting medium in space through which not only 
the comets had to move, but also all the other planets 
would have to move, then you might be justified in 
thinking that all was indeed decay from friction, if 
from no other cause. But all space is filled with in- 
finite atomic life, which produces, and not destroys, 
force — i. e. it is the beginning of or first conception 
of thought, force and substance. 

laplace's great sun. 

We will now endeavor to draw for your considera- 
tion another illustration of the law of so<-called crea- 
tion; and in so doing hope to assist our friend La- 
place out of a dilemma, where he, like many other 
theorists, invariably find themselves in trying to ac- 
count for a first cause, to wit, in beginning at the 
wrong end of the question, where they are compelled 
to start their edifice on mere belief or assumption of 
a great something, such as a great being, or, as our 
friend Laplace has it, a great ready-made sun, which, 
to our mind, would appear to be a distinction without 
a difference. 

Now, my inquiring friend, allow us to ask: If a 
great sun was the first cause of all creation or created 
bodies, what, in your opinion, must have been the di- 
ameter of such a sun? Do you not see that, by any 
reasonable mathematical solution, it would have to be 
equal in bulk to all the rest of that which it had ere- 



( 287 ) 

a ted? Just try to conceive of all the other globes that 
now occupy space concentrated into one immense 
sphere — for this would be the first condition, as they, 
at that time or any other, had no other resource from 
which to draw material. For by this theory all sub- 
stance and all life, that now and forever shall occupy 
infinite space must have been concentrated in one im- 
mense organized body. 

Here allow us to follow Socrates' mode of argument 
by asking a question : Was not this sphere composed 
of single atoms of substance? Did this, its first con- 
dition, just happen so? How did it happen to burst 
or throw off the other globes? Did it just grow and 
grow, as Topsy expressed it, until it could no longer 
contain itself and had to burst? If so it grew, 
where did the substance come from that enlarged it? 

And now, my friend, as these questions leave you 
where Laplace found himself, and where all others, 
we think, may expect to land Avho seek for a creative 
cause, to wit, floundering in the mud, let us see where 
the opposite course will leave us. 

ALL BODIES CAME FROM THE UNIT. 

We shall begin by affirming that all great things are 
produced by the uniting of the very smallest of all 
things; that is, the greater body could only come 
into existence by the consent of, or the uniting of, its 
various subdivisional parts. Out of what? Cer- 
tainly not out of the dismemberment of a larger body ; 
for if so, then shall we be obliged to refer you to our 
friend Huxley and his lobster paradox for a solution; 
for we must candidly admit that there is no know!- 



( 288 ) 

edge or reasonable ground of belief that any such an 
immense sphere ever had any but a chimerical exist- 
ence, while the existence of atomic substances is a 
well-known fact. 

Having denied such a postulate, the onus is now on 
us to advance a more reasonable one. In so doing we 
will be required to repeat some of our previous argu- 
ments, but we promise to be as brief as our love of 
truth will justify, and will begin by again asking ques- 
tions. First : Is not mathematics one of the greatest of 
existing truths? Did this great thing burst and scat- 
ter itself over all space in the form of units (atoms) ? 
To be more explicit, did geometry, algebra, mensura- 
tion, etc., first exist as a great and wonderful whole, 
to suddenly burst into decimal parts, of the numer- 
als, such as one, two, three, etc? Or was not mathe- 
matics, as a great body of truth, the effect or result 
of a slow process of addition by the adding of one dis- 
covered process to another? In making any mathe- 
matical calculation, do you not have to first seek a 
single unit, or one, and build your greater from this? 
Then, in this case, is not the first beginning the one 
single unit? Could Euclid's problems possibly have 
existed before the multiplication-table? Or the mul- 
tiplication-tables before the numerals? Here you 
have for a positive fact an actual knowledge that at 
least one of the greatest things on earth is the effect 
of something that previously existed in an atomical 
condition ; and that it owes its greatness solely to the 
organization of its atomical parts. 

Illustration number two ( where one man shall rep- 
resent the unit or atom) : His simple understanding 



( 289 ) 

of the law of physics teaches him that two are 
stronger than one. He wishes to accomplish some- 
thing greatly beyond his individual force ; he attracts 
a friend of similar ideas. Here you have precisely 
the same first law of an organized body that brought 
the single atoms of substance together — i. e., sympa- 
thetic attraction. We will only change the name, and 
call it similarity of ideas. These attract others until 
we have a single body composed of twenty units. 
Here steps into existence Darwin's law of the survival 
of the fittest ; for you will perceive that the strongest 
mind will control this body. So we will appoint him 
Captain. Now, we find that the more the units com- 
bine, the greater the attraction, and we now have a 
hundred units. The Captain finds that if he would 
survive he must have five captains, while he becomes, 
from the law of necessity, a Colonel, and so the in- 
crease of the units goes on until we find a well-organ- 
ized and great army, and at its head stands a great 
man who is the one great governing life of the destiny 
of this mighty army. Question : Was not this great 
body the effect of a previous condition or cause? 

Thirdly : Is not all the present knowledge of man- 
kind as represented on the shelves of your great and 
small libraries, the effect of a previous knowledge of 
simpler things? Or, we may say, the effect of the or- 
ganization by uniting together the slowly accumulat- 
ing mass of knowledge of single discoveries of truth? 
Was not this great knowledge the effect of a previous 
cause? Was not the cause produced by one man at 
a time (the unit), adding his load to organize the 
whole, atom to atom? Or was it the result of some 



( 290 ) 

great unknown sun or being, that finally got so large 
from some secret process of getting something out of 
nothing that it had to burst? Or, perhaps, Pandora 
was only one of countless millions of box-agents, em- 
ployed for the occasion to relieve the pressure. 

And now, my friend, we will again appeal to your 
own common sense, and ask you to look around in any 
direction where it is possible for you to apply those 
senses and judge for yourself if the cause of all ob- 
jective bodies that have an existence cannot be disin- 
tegrated and reduced to the atom or single unit of 
substance? Is not this postulate so plain and unde- 
niable as to cause you to actually fall over it in order 
to dodge the issue of truth? 

If our point of reasoning is correct, — and we think 
it is, — then we will avail ourselves of this oppor- 
tunity to give the friends of Mr. Laplace an astronom- 
ical nut to crack : It is a well-established fact that our 
sun, together with its numerous family of stars or 
planets, is but one of thousands of other systems, and, 
as we have shown by our map where we illustrate the 
spheres, that our system is but one of the units that 
revolve around a still greater sun (Polaris), and so 
on — a wheel within a wheel — as we have stated, this 
sun of ours became the general or governing body by 
the law of the survival of the fittest, or from the very 
force of necessity, and so was the second and third 
sun; and thus it goes on and on to higher stages of 
progression — we might say, a sort of robbing of Peter 
to pay Paul. 

Infinite space, filled with atomic force, thought, 
and substance is the inexhaustible source of supply, 



( 291 ) 

the first cause; that this process is still going on and 
on forever, is evidenced by the constant appearance 
of so-called old and new comets or nebnlae. Like the 
apple on the tree, all do not reach a full unfoldment, 
but disintegrate, some in the form of meteorites, 
others in star-dust, etc. 

THE CAUSE OF THE DECLINATION OF THE EARTH'S AXIS. 

And now the question to astronomers: Why does 
the pole of the earth, or its axis, as also of Saturn and 
many other planets, have an inclination in one con- 
stant direction? We think this question has never 
been satisfactorily answered ; therefore, we may be ex- 
cused for our presumption in offering you our views 
on the subject. You tell us that the axis of the earth 
has an obliquity of twenty-three degrees twenty-seven 
minutes and fifty-five seconds, and, further, that this 
angle is constantly but very slowly growing less. If 
the angle was growing less, and this was a positive 
known quantity, then all you wise men would have to 
do to determine when the end of the earth should ar- 
rive would be to compute this known graduation to 
determine the exact time. For instance, if the reduc- 
tion was one minute in one year, then in 1407 years, 
it should arrive at a perpendicular, the effect of which 
would be to raise the temperature at the equator to 
such a height as to almost produce spontaneous com- 
bustion, while those in the frigid zone would be slowly 
driven into the temperate zone. Just imagine such a 
population ; Chinese sampans would be at a premium. 
(Caution. — Should any Adventists happen to be 
present while you are reading this, please read it very 



( 292 ) 

easy; for we do not wish to be the cause of their again 
giving away their possessions when 1407 years hence 
shall arrive, because of the prophecy that the next 
destruction of the world is to be by fire. ) 

You are also told that the orbit of the earth is a a 
ellipsis. We will now give you our explanation on 
the unity hypothesis. 

First : We venture to say that if astronomers will 
take the trouble to make four measurements of this 
angle — say, one at perihelion, one at aphelion, and one 
at each meridian, (i. e., March and September), that 
they will find there is a difference between January 
and June, and that March and September are very 
much alike, for this reason: these axes all point to 
one greater center, around which our sun and its fam- 
ily revolve. This we show on the map as the second 
sun. This second sun Ave will call for this occasion 
the General who commands not only our solar system 
but several other neighboring systems, which we will 
call Colonels . Now, each sphere of our system is ro- 
tating on its own axis. The equator is moving 
through space faster than the pole. This generates 
electro-magnetism, which seeks a point of escape 
where the least resistance is offered, Avhich is the pole. 
We say generates electro-magnetism ; of course, yoi i 
will understand that when we use the term generate 
Ave do not mean that something is created, only that a 
certain change is produced in substance by which the 
matter of electro-magnetism so-called is recognized as 
an existing thing. 

This substance in the atomic condition, as we have 
before stated, occupies all space, and is the life-giA r ing 



( 293 ) 

food and energy of all planets; as the world moves 
through space at the equator it permeates and ener- 
gizes the entire mass and escapes at the pole. This 
inflowing life-giving fluid is that which Descartes en- 
deavored to explain by giving it the name of the 
" Vortex Force " (the Cartesian theory). By this 
passage, like the atoms of the apple, it undergoes 
another change which advances it into a higher condi- 
tion and prepares it to pass on to the second sun. 
Here allow us to state that a somewhat similar pro- 
cess is passing from your sun and the earth and ail 
the other members of your solar system, and is that 
which many erroneously suppose is the physical heat 
of matter in a state of combustion in the sun, which 
may eventually consume the sun. How absurd! 
For by our explanation, — if we be correct, ahem! — 
you will perceive that there is a constant source of 
supply. 

Just fall back again, my friend, on your own com- 
mon sense, and ask yourself what kind of known phy- 
sical heat from combustion could possibly be pro- 
duced so intense as to be able to travel 93,000,000 
miles through such a frigid temperature as lies be- 
tween the earth and the sun that could have the fac- 
ulty of warming the atmosphere of the earth but have 
no perceptible effect on the intermediate substance 
lying between and much closer to the fire. 

Now, all planets are again revolving around the 
sun. Our sun is also rotating on its own axis, and 
throwing off a magnetic current, and at the same time 
is revolving with its family around the General, or 
second sun once in thirty-three years. This second sun 



( 294 ) 

is holding, by its power of attraction acting on each 
member of our sun's family, our Colonel and his fam- 
ily in their respective places. This greater force is 
exercised by and through the magnetic fluid that es- 
capes by means of the pole of the earth. At the same 
time our neighboring family or solar system is pulling 
us in the direction of perihelion. ( See illustration. ) 
This being the case, then our astronomers will find, 
upon i more careful investigation, that the orbit of 
the earth-plane is not an ellipse formed by a plane 
passing through a cylinder, but is an ellipse formed 
by a plane passing through a cone; the apex of this 
cone is the second sun (or Polaris) around which our 
sun and its family revolve. Now, draw a number of 
lines from this apex through the axes of the earth 
at the four quarters of its orbit, and let each line be of 
the same length ; then take these ends as the surface 
of a plane. This plane would be found to be a per- 
fect circle or the base of a cone, but let the earth be 
in any position in its orbit, the pole would be found 
pointing far off in space to the second sun. ( See il- 
lustration.) The time required for our sun and its 
family of planets to complete one circle around Po- 
laris, called its orbit, is thirty- three years; at one 
point in this orbit the earth passes through a body of 
meteorites which, your authorities claim, visit your 
earth every thirty-three years, instead of the earth 
visiting them. (The Leonids or TempePs comet.) 

Was " Kastus " or Galileo right in saying that the 
sun " do " move around the earth or around Polaris? 
Which, gentlemen? 

And now for a word to those high and mighty gen- 



-.SECOND SUV 

P CALLED POLARIS ; - 




V\J* *v 



( 295 ) 

tlemen who claim to have reached the present pinna- 
cle of scholastic attainment : Gentlemen, you are very 
well aware that after having reached such an exalted 
position, that nowhere in all of your investigations 
have you succeeded in bringing to the light of truth 
any positive or rational evidence of a previous exist- 
ence^ — i. e. before the so-called creation — or of a so- 
called divine omnipotent wisdom. Neither have you 
any evidence that the present condition of either or- 
ganized or unorganized matter is the result of chance 
or from the effect of nature blindly modeling them 
into shape. 

A QUESTION TO PROFESSOR GEORGE DAVIDSON ON THIS 
DECLINATION, AND HIS REPLY. 

Note by the scribe. — After this chapter of a ques- 
tion to astronomers was written, I was somewhat un- 
certain as to whether there might not be some known 
cause of the declination of the earth's axis with which 
I was not familiar, and, to set the matter at rest, so 
far as I was concerned, I wrote the following question 
to Professor George Davidson : — 

Alameda, March 21, 1898. 
Mr. Davidson : Dear Sir. — Will you kindly inform 
me whether there is any known law that causes the 
declination of the earth's axis of about 23 degrees, 
and where I can find the authority, and, if there is 
none, would you please inform me what is the gener- 
ally accepted theory of the cause, and oblige, 
Yours, etc., 

C. H. Foster. 



( 296 ) 

In reply I received the following answer: — 

San Francisco, March 28, '98. 

Mr. C. H. Foster, Alameda : Dear Sir. — I acknowl- 
edge receipt of your letter of the 21st. You are ask- 
ing too much. The " Nebular Hypothesis " of Kant, 
Laplace, and others undertakes to tell how the uni- 
verse was made. The whole subject is beyond human 
comprehension, and involved therein is the rotation 
of the sun and planets ; the revolution of the planets 
and relation of the satellites to their primaries. 

Furthermore, the relation of the orbits of the plan- 
ets to the sun and the relation of the axis of rotation 
of ea planet to its orbit are among the inscrutable 
things. 

We shall never know how this and other universes 
were formed, nor how they received their movements 
of rotation or revolution. We must take the facts 
as they present themselves to us. 

So soon as we know the cause or causes of these 
and other associated phenomena we shall have one of 
the attributes of omniscience. 

Please understand clearly that you are not author- 
ized to publish this statement in any form or method. 
Very respectfully, 

George Davidson. 

Professor Davidson is at this date probably as well 
informed on this subject as any scholar in the United 
States, yet we are inclined to think that his reply 
bears us out in our conclusions concerning some of 
the objectionable features of scholasticism when he 
first acknowledges the question to be among the in- 



( 297 ) 

scrutable tilings, and then adopts the same old error 
of your school professors by the dogmatic assertion 
that Ave shall never know how this universe was 
formed, but must take the facts as they present them- 
selves to us. 

Allow us to ask, How does he know that the uni- 
verse was formed at all? Must Ave take this as a fact 
because he or the priest so declares? 

Again we would call attention to what would seem 
to us as a graceful salaam to the clergy in his indirect 
acknowledgment of the existence of a great — ahem--- 
Avell, let us say, omnipotence — when he declares that 
to know the cause of the declination of the earth's axis 
("and other associated phenomena") we shall have 
one of the attributes of omniscience. We would ask 
him why a knowledge of the cause of this particular 
phenomenon should impart to us an attribute of om- 
niscience any more than ony other acquired knowl- 
edge of the cause of an effect. 

We wish to say, with the greatest respect for Pro- 
fessor Davidson, that the tone and manner of his an- 
swering the question is what we have all along con- 
tended against, which is : You must accept what the 
priest, the parent, and your teacher lay down as a 
fixed and unalterable laAv of facts or stand the brand- 
ing iron of heresy. 

They might just as Avell be as frank as Professor 
Davidson when he acknowledges that we are asking 
too much, by the further acknowledgment that, as a 
professor, holding a responsible position as Avell as a 
lucratiA^e one, that if they wish to retain tho*- posi- 
tions they should not antagonize the various pa ental, 



( 298 ) 

credal, and political sources of revenue and other sup- 
plies. However, the bump of caution is not always 
to be despised. 

If you are satisfied in your own mind that Laplace's 
idea of a previous existing great sun representing 
this divine omnipotence is, so far as any evidence 
goes, a chimerical idea (and we think you are), then 
why not come boldly out and deny the false god and 
prove your freedom of intellect by at least acknowl- 
edging that the field of occult science is beyond your 
boasted scholastic attainments, but that you hope, 
through the assistance of such discoveries in psychol- 
ogy as have been developed within the last fifty years 
and before the expiration of another fifty years, to be 
in possession of sufficient positive evidence as to for- 
ever set this question at rest — i. e : Were the atoms of 
infinite thought, force, and substance that fills all 
space the beginning of all organized or objective mat- 
ter? Or was some great (and necessarily mythical) 
previously organized body the first cause of atomic 
existence? 

WHAT CONSTITUTES LIFE. 

We sincerely hope that in the interim you may be 
able to give to the world a positive and analytical 
explanation of what constitutes and from whence 
came life, if our definition should prove incorrect, 
which is : — 

Substance of itself, if deprived of Life, would be 
the only thing absolutely inanimate or in a positive 
state of rest. Now, trace back from the substance 
and we find by giving it (substance), motion requires 



( 299 ) 

force, and to procure force we must have energy, to 
procure energy we mast have life, for it is only by 
motion in matter that we recognize such a thing as 
life exists, and only by the knowledge gained through 
occult science as established by the spirit phenom- 
enon within the past fifty years that we now know 
that life continues beyond the grave ; and by this pow- 
er of life in its first recognition by man as thought 
and force do we secure the first move on the chess- 
board of existence — i. e. the organism of the units. 

This fact established, of life beyond the grave, also 
furnishes the positive knowledge that motion, force, 
energy, and intelligence accompany these spirit phe- 
nomena. Common sense also teaches us that there 
could be no motion without something to move. So, 
as we do not take our physical matter with us beyond 
the grave, then the question arises: What kind of 
matter is it that moves and exhibits all those attri- 
butes of life? We call it imponderable, and it must 
be matter. Physical man is but an accumulation of 
units (atoms) of substance which he lays down at the 
grave. The monkey, the tree, the crystal — ah ! even 
the atmosphere and water, — follow precisely the same 
law. 

Now follows an important question : Do not all of 
these possess life? As we think we have conclusively 
shown you that Life is a thing that is capable of prov- 
ing its continued existence after the disintegration of 
the physical object through which you became aware 
of its existence, then is not this fact also conclusive 
evidence that all orc/anized life continues beyond the 
grave? Has science any actual knowledge of some 



( 300 ) 

other mystic law by which the imponderable sub- 
stance or matter that constitutes the I AM of man is 
particularly separated from the matter of the monkey 
or tree? 

Here we shall again assert that the only positive, 
tangible evidence that physical man has to-day is that 
all matter does pass on to higher conditions in the 
course of ages. As to the time required or where the 
final end may be (if there is an end), is, from the very 
nature of the question, infinitely infinite, and cuts 
no figure pro or con as to the truth of our assertion. 
This fact established leads us to ask, What, then, is 
the condition or state of this matter after it passes 
the grave? Does it disperse itself over all space? 
Or is it not more reasonable to suppose that the same 
law of sympathetic attraction draws and holds like 
to like, and, as it would naturally have a stronger af- 
finity to this earth planet from which it advanced 
than any other planet, would not this affinity cause 
it to assume a spherical shape around the earth? 
And if so, would not this, let us say, double-distilled 
essence of the physical earth-matter be a truthful rep- 
resentative of all those ancient ideas that still cling 
to this enlightened age, conceived by some to be Heav- 
en, by others Hades, Limbo, Purgatory, Sheol, Hell, 
etc.; for in such a sphere would be found the very 
essence of all things and all minds of an earthly ori- 
gin? 

In this condition would be found the evidence of 
the truth of the assertion that, as a man thinks, so 
he is, for to some it would indeed be Hell while Heav- 
en to others. 



( 301 ) 

THE QUESTION 

If as I think that I know I am, 
Then why am I what I am? 

TO THE SPHYNX. 

Thou silent sentinel of ages, 

who, why, and what art thou? 

Mystery of the sandy sea, 

Canst tell to me, I pray thee, 

The riddle of the Sphynx? 

The folks, of yore, that haye gone before 

Haye left the wonder in me. 

ANSWER. 

" Mortal, whence contest thou and why? 

I'm but a body, it is true, how of you? 

Ten million miles beyond the sky 

A spark, a lineage, yet but a clew ; 

'T was the bed in which you made me lie 

As a spark of life, a drop of dew. 

Was this the Whence or Why of cause? 
This spark that was before the know, 
Or but the work of other laws? 
As to what I am? I 'm here to show 
Though I know not whence or why I go. 

Could man reduce a point in space 

By artificial means, I trow, 

Or fix an atom in a plaee 

To lead to knowledge of the how? 

Is nothing true that has no Why, 

Or is to be the proof for now? 



( 302 ) 

Till mortal pass beyond the sky 
They ne'er can know immortal law 
To solve chis riddle man may try 
With base so low and head so high; 
Can body be, without a flaw? 
A body that, can never die. 

Poor, puny man, you can but try 

To solve the riddle as to why Am I ! 

For that I am, is proof to show ; 

The design, though mortal, proves Thought we know ; 

That, is the toork which thought may do ; 
But thought of itself can man construe 
That out of nothing something grow? 
Or was Force required to make me so? 

But the riddle of riddles, as you may see, 

Brings thought from out of infinity, 

To direct the Force that modeled me. 

My riddle is, as to why I be? 

Are Thought and Force, and Substance three? 

Or are they one and infinity? 

As thought do I exist or know? 
Is force a Thing without the blow? 
As substantial proof you all may see, 
I'm, all that's real or can ever be; 
For When my three parts you do unite 
You'll find I'm One and the infinite. 



( 303 ) 



CHAPTER XXXVI. 

(Jan. 26, 1898.) 

SUBSTANCE, ANIMATION AND MATTER. 

Think, reason, intelligence, energy, force, motion, 
i. e., rotary, spiral, vortex, etc. 

As we have asserted that there is no snch thing in 
existence as inanimation, and have designated it as 
a false God, we think it appropriate, at this point 
in onr remarks, to devote a few explanatory words to 
this subject. We will begin by saying that, while in 
the past science was unaware of many of the finer 
psychic laws governing the substance of matter, and 
therefore, so far is excusable, yet to-day no such an 
assertion as the existence of inanimate matter is per- 
missible. 

In order that you may more readily grasp our 
meaning, we will pursue the same course that has 
governed us from the beginning of this work ; that is, 
we will commence our investigation at the ultimate 
limit of human comprehension of the beginning of 
things. 

First, we have the atomic life of substance, which 
we first recognize as a thought; then reason; then 
from these is produced intelligence. For you must 
acknowledge that intelligence is the effect of reason. 



( 304 ) 

Hence, reason must have begun with one think, or a 
single thought. The next advance is in the order fol- 
lowing — i. e., energy, force, and motion, — which in 
turn produces change ; said change is first made mani- 
fest by a rotary motion, then spiral, then vortex. 

You will please understand that we are now speak- 
ing of the single atom of substance or the dawn of the 
spark of life; that is, at the very instant that life 
first acts or asserts its authority over substance by a 
thought. Now, you can readily conceive that all 
these various conditions must be brought forward, 
developed or produced in the exact order as we have 
named them — i. e. a single think, then reason, intelli- 
gence, energy, force, motion, and change, after which 
comes wisdom from the experience of repeated 
change; for what is wisdom but the accumulated 
knowledge of truth gathered by a prolonged and use- 
ful life of observing the application and effect of 
change. 

It is at this stage that an erroneous idea or false 
God again finds an opportunity to erect that hoary 
head of his in the name of instinct. We will endeavor 
to decapitate this instinctive gentleman by asking you 
a few questions. Is it instinct that causes the creep- 
ing vine to fasten to the wall? Is it instinct that 
causes the young quail to hide from danger? Is it 
instinct that causes the young mother trout or salmon 
to jump five feet out of running water over rocks 
which it probably never saw or experienced before to 
find a suitable place to spawn? Finally, is it instinct 
that causes one atom of substance to deliberately seek 
another atom of substance to form the matter of 



( 305 ) 

water; that is, an atom of the substance of oxygen 
and another atom of hydrogen? 

Here you will perceive that substance and matter 
are two separate tilings ; for, while they are in a phy- 
sical sense inseparable, like force and motion, jet, 
in this article, if we wish to get at the very essence 
of our subject, we must treat them as two distinct 
things — the first being eternal ( at least, as far as we 
know) and incapable of annihilation, while the mat- 
ter of water is subject to annihilation; and if not, 
allow us to ask what becomes of the water after you 
take away the substance of oxygen? Is not water 
matter? 

Fere a slight explanation is necessary to the stu- 
dent. We have generally throughout this work been 
accustomed to speak of matter as indestructible, but 
have done so to simplify our remarks to you in our 
elementary explanation, and had reference to atomic 
substance; for, at the early stage of this work we had 
n i brought your reason sufficiently forward, nor did 
we deem it wise at that time to segregate the two; 
also, in our use of the word animation, we had refer- 
ence to motion and not soul ; but in this chapter we 
shall be more explicit. 

To continue our subject of instinct, you will see 
that there is no place for instinct to exist only in im- 
agination ; for it would have to make its first appear- 
ance after change, as a product of change ; the same 
as experience is produced only from and after 
changes, which in turn produces wisdom of the spirit 
of matter. 

You will now observe the question from this point 



( 306 ) 

of view — that matter is the effect or result of a union 
of two or more single atoms of substance. And now, 
may it please the Court, we will give you the sub- 
stance of the whole matter; that is, we will reduce it 
to its last subdivisional part. You may call it wis- 
dom, intuition, or instinct, soul or spirit. Man only 
recognizes these attributes by their effect on organ- 
ized substance; but before substance was organized 
(a joining together of two or more parts) we find 
positive evidence of the existence of a think, reason, 
and intelligence, in the fact of the motion in the atom. 
And, as reason was before motion and before organ- 
ism, therefore before matter; for the single atom of 
substance proves it is in possession of intelligence 
which is the effect of reason which is again the effect 
of a think, from the known fact that it moves or 
changes its position in space for a preconceived pur- 
pose of joining forces with another atom, and thereby 
establishes the very first move or motion to organize 
matter. You will also bear in mind that this pre- 
cedence accompanies all kinds of organized matter 
whatsoever, for the atom must think before start- 
ing on a journey for a definite purpose. 

WHAT IS A SOUL? 

And, as it is the experience of matter that produces 
wisdom and spirit, and spirit produces soul; then, 
instead of soul producing animation, which existed 
before and is the cause of soul ; then animation pro- 
duced soul, and not soul animation — just the reverse 
of your previous teachings. For it is not generally 
conceded in metaphysics tbat a single atom of sub- 



( 307 ) 

stance is a body, or at least not an organized body; 
and if a soul has an existence, it must be something 
of a higher order than the least of all known things. 
Hence it must be the effect of something previous ; 
and, as that something was the dawn of organized 
matter, which is your first recognition of a body, then 
the body is before the soul. And if the body existed 
before the soul, what quickened it? or gaye power to 
it before the soul made its appearance? if not life? 

To put a yery fine point to it, allow us to ask at 
what precise point in the life of this body did a souJ 
first enter it? 

In this analysis of ours, we are trying to confine 
our solution within the boundary of human compre- 
hension; that is, the ultimate, and not the infinite. 
How much more rational it would read that the body 
animates the soul, instead of the soul animates the 
body. It appears that reason alone would suggest 
that this would be in perfect accord with the order 
of ceaseless progression or evolution. 'T is true, 
physical man can have but the faintest conception of 
what a soul, practically speaking, is. And when you 
come to consider that the soul of things is the ulti- 
mate limit of human comprehension as to the fullness 
of the future, so also is the atom the limit of the be- 
ginning of things. 

This investigation of the subject, we find, carries us 
from one extreme beginning to one extreme end, and 
yet does not compel us, for a practical solution, to go 
outside cjf human comprehension, nor is it at variance 
with all the known laws of the philosophy of evolu- 
tion or the survival of the fittest, but leaves the chain 



( 308 ) 

of facts unbroken — i. e. the body is responsible for 
a good spirit and the spirit is responsible for a good 
sonl. 

You will notice that in this article we have paren- 
thesized the question : If there is a soul. And, as we 
have frequently remarked, words and names are but 
man-made and are merely convenience to truth; and 
whether the name of soul fits that condition of the 
state of the " I am," after it has passed to a higher 
position than the spirit world, we are unable to in- 
form you. All that the denizens of the spirit world 
can positively inform you of is, that we occasionally 
miss from among us the presence of those highly ad- 
vanced spirits whom we have been accustomed to rec- 
ognize as wise teachers to us of lower degree. But, 
while Ave miss them in person, the same as you of the 
earth miss your physical friends at the passage you 
call death, yet we, the lower spirits, can and do hold 
communication with them, which is evidence of a 
state of being beyond the spirit world, the same as the 
fact that we, the spirits, can communicate with you 
is evidence to you of a state of being beyond the grave. 
Man recognizes the existence of life by its effect on 
matter. As we trace this effect to cause, we find that 
the last or ultimate of human comprehension is a 
single thought. This would tend to show that life 
and thought were;, as far as human comprehension 
goes, synonymous terms. At any rate, it is the very 
first conception of an existing thing previous to 
thought, which we call Life, God, or the Infinite. 

Can man, by searching, find out God? No. Now, 
let us, for the purpose of illustration, call this the 



( 309 ) 

first recognized appearance of the I AM. What do 
you first recognize? Why, a thought. Then, in the 
so-called beginning was thought the least and yet the 
greatest of all known things. 

Now, take the other extreme end, as you pass 
through or enter on to the passage which you call 
death, you seem to miss your thoughts (life.) Sor- 
rowing friends exclaim ; " He is dying." When you 
find you have made the change into spirit, what is 
the first thing you recognize? Thought, the I AM 
(life). When, as spirit, you reach out and attempt 
to grasp soul, what do you first recognize? Thought 
or life, only this, and nothing more. Here we find 
that, as it was in the beginning, so it is in the end ; 
for from thought we came and unto thought do we re- 
turn. We are speaking now in what you may call a 
literal sense of only that which your physical senses 
can recognize, or, at least, as nearly literal as meta- 
physics will admit. 

Here we feel that we are again obliged to repeat 
in order that the student may not lose sight of the 
main object sought — i. e. the first comprehensive 
cause of existence. 

If out of nothing nothing comes, and, as we know 
that something does exist, all that finite man can pos- 
sibly do, in searching backwards (in our opinion, 
ahem ! ) is to trace from effect to cause in the order 
we have here followed where we find that we are com- 
pelled to halt when we arrive at a think, the repre- 
sentative of life and limit of human comprehension ; 
for, did man have the power to comprehend the infi- 
nite, and you assume, as a postulate, that out of noth- 



( 310 ) 

ing nothing comes, then there never could have been 
a time or place of a state of nothingness. But, by so 
assuming, you are absolutely compelled to admit that 
thought and substance always existed. You may 
probably comprehend us better when we say that if 
an ideal being, or an ideal condition, was the cause of 
life, then this ideal would have had to exist as a some- 
thing previous, which would carry you ad infinitum, 
and then leave the finger-board pointing to something 
still previous. However, we are not speculating in 
the ideals or " must have beens," but the limit of prac- 
tical comprehension and are perfectly willing to leave 
the speculative to the theologian. 



(311) 



CHAPTER XXXVII. 

(Mar. 10, 1898.) 

DESCARTES. VORTEX. VERSES. NEWTON'S GRAVITY. 

Question : Is the Cartesian law of vortex or the 
Newton law of gravity the nearest to correct? Ans. 
If the earth is, as we suppose, a liquid or plastic mass 
on the interior, its centrifugal force would be more 
than sufficient to overcome its centripetal force or 
gravitation attraction, were there no other forces act- 
ing against it. Many investigators claim that the 
flattening at the poles is the result of the difference 
in temperature. 

If man were not so hasty in jumping at his conclu- 
sions, he would look deeper and satisfy himself wheth- 
er or no there might not be other forces at work in 
the long lapse of time that were slowly at work to ac- 
complish the same result. Now, let us peep a little 
deeper into the Newton law of centripetal force or 
gravity by asking what is this law ; what causes your 
so-called centripetal force? Is it anything more or 
less than that which we have described as sympa- 
thetic attraction or that life principle in tha single 
atom that first gave to it force and motion? 

Centripetal, forsooth ! Allow us to ask : is it cen- 
tripetal force that holds your physical body together 
and all other objects of growth? If this were so, that 
it were a merely mechanical force or a question of 



(312) 

foot pounds, i. e., a definite or given force acting on a 
given quantity of matter and a centrifugal force were 
acting in the opposite direction and thereby establish- 
ing a balance of forces to such a nicety that man 
is unable at this late date of centuries on top of cen- 
turies, to distinguish any fractional increase or dim- 
inution of this globe, then why does not this same cen- 
trifugal force prevent an increase in the bulk of a 
man's body? 

We will admit that heat has a tendency to expand 
a bo< % up to a certain mechanical per cent.; that is, 
a given amount of heat, when applied to different sub- 
stances, affects their expansion in different amounts 
and that this is a known quantity. But you must 
acknowledge that centrifugal force is a known quan- 
tity and, like heat, is governed by purely mechanical 
or physical law ; and you will perceive that when you 
apply this to such an immense plastic body as the 
earth at the equator that the centripetal force is but 
a trifle when reckoned as a counter force. 

" But," say the Newtonians, " we have also the cen- 
tripetal force of the sun to assist us." This is an er- 
ror, for the sun does not exert any cohesive force on 
the atoms that form the earth's body of matter. Cen- 
trifugal force is derived from a body rotating on its 
own center or a rotary motion and in no sense is its 
cohesive force affected by its revolving motion around 
some other body. Again, Mr. Newton tells us that 
the earth is receiving a force of gravity (we believe he 
calls it all gravity) from those spheres lying on the 
opposite side of the earth from the sun and that this 
force it is that holds the earth in its present orbit. 



( 313 ) 

We have but to call your attention to one fact in this 
case that is recognized as such by all philosophers, 
which is, that Descartes, long before Newton's time, 
advocated the vortex theory as the active force in 
holding this world in its orbit. This is known as the 
Cartesian theory. In Descartes' time, the printing 
press was a very expensive luxury, which made it dif- 
ficult for him to place his work before the public; but 
Newton, a little later, being English, succeeded 
mostly through English pride in securing the ear and 
press of the English speaking people ; and, as at that 
time, England was taking the lead in literature, New- 
ton's theory became, more by this means than by the 
intrinsic value of his theory being correct, the accept- 
ed doctrine. Descartes' French admirers at the time 
and even to-day have challenged the correctness of 
Newton's law in what we consider a most emphatic 
manner by asking Mr. Newton a simple question : 
" If this world is held in its present position in space 
by the sun on one side and by the planets on the op- 
posite side, as a counter force, then what holds those 
outer planets in their place? " 

We consider that Newton's law of gravity was sim- 
ply forced onto the public, not by its real merit so 
much as by what is equivalent to brute force, or in the 
same manner as the Church endeavored to prove Gali- 
leo wrong, i. e., " renounce it or follow Bruno." In 
the one case, it was that kind of force better known in 
America as the "political pull," ye know; in the 
other, pure and simple brute force of burning fagots. 

While the shrinkage of the crust of the earth at the 
poles is in a slight measure caused by the difference 



( 314 ) 

of temperature the principal cause is the centrifugal 
force of the earth which takes up the difference in 
shrinkage of the crust as the earth is gradually cool- 
ing from a liquid to a solid state. Now, while we find 
much of Newton's law of inestimable value to truth 
so do we find much truth in the vortex theory; but 
neither theory has all the truth, and it is just barely 
possible that Mr. Newton, in order to secure the ear 
of the public at that time, found it advisable not to 
antagonize Laplace's great sun theory. 

PHYSICAL OR MECHANICAL FORCE VERSUS ATOMIC 

ENERGY. 

While it is highly proper to keep a jealous eye on 
those forces recognized among you as physical forces, 
or perhaps we may be better understood if we say in 
conjunction with this article, mechanical forces; yet, 
in weighing the evidence as regards to the power that 
is holding this world in its place, we claim that the 
question has not as yet been settled, therefore we shall 
take the liberty of advancing our theory. 

It is a very common thing for man to assert that 
he has created or made a certain force through this or 
that combination. This is entirely wrong. You can 
neither make nor destroy one particle of force any 
more than you can destroy substance; for force, act- 
ing on substance, is the means by which life expresses 
itself to man or matter. In other words, force, 
thought, and substance is life itself; and, as we 
have elsewhere stated that thought was the first 
representative of life by producing reason and 
intelligence in one direction, so do we advocate 



(315 ) 

that energy is the first representative of life by 
producing force, motion, and change; and, as 
we think that we have clearly and comprehensively 
established as a known fact that these attributes of 
so-called life are what constitutes the infinite, though 
living beyond the reach of human comprehension, 
yet man actually knows for a fact that they cTo 
have an existence, and that beyond this fact, he has 
no further knowledge, but all is pure and simple con- 
jecture. 

As the object of this work, from the very start has 
been to strictly confine our investigations within the 
boundary of only that which we know and endeavor to 
harmonize and apply a rational cause to all effect, 
therefore we feel ourselves justified in asserting that, 
as all substance in the atomic form first existed and 
was first acted upon by thought, reason and intelli- 
gence, when secondly this intelligence then prompted 
this atom of substance to join another atom for a def- 
inite purpose, bat, being unable to produce motion to 
carry out this purpose, it — this so-called inert sub- 
stance — was compelled to call to its assistance en- 
ergy. Xow if energy was not a co-existing thing with 
substance — hence equally infinite — then where, may 
we ask, did substance get its force from to produce 
motion ? For the atom of substance had to first move 
before it could join another atom and by this union 
we have our first knowledge of matter or organism. 

(The student will probably better understand us at 
this point when we say that you can segregate the 
substance of most matter and thereby arrive at its 
component parts, but you would find it somewhat 



(316) 

difficult to separate the matter from the substance 
and still have a remainder. ) 

Here you will preceive that force is a thing inde- 
pendent of substance but not independent of matter ; 
for it is by the consent of force that matter exists. 
This being the case, we will ask : " What do you know 
of force of itself? What is it composed of?" You 
see that you find yourself as devoid of knowledge as 
to force as you do of life. You are only aware of its 
existence by its effect on matter. Hence we make the 
assertion that thought and force are what constitute 
life, and that this life occupies all space by a prior 
right of possession and that it is the only thing that 
holds all forms or objects together and does so in- 
dependent of what we call mechanical forces, such as 
centripetal and centrifugal force; for this kind of 
force is produced from matter acting on or in con- 
junction with matter, something after the nature of 
sympathetic attraction. 

The Cartesian theory of a vortex is also correct so 
far as the circular motion is produced. To illustrate : 
Let two cannon balls meet while moving in opposite 
directions. The mechanical force at the instant of 
impact is a whirling or vortex motion before it 
assumes a straight line, the same as two bodies of 
wind, for the very first instant or atomical fraction of 
time that force is applied to a so-called inert body it 
is diffused all over the body by a whirling motion. 
The force that keeps this world in a spherical form is 
applied in the vortex form. So much for vortex. 

But force was before, and was the cause of vortex, 
the motion being only the expression of force. What 



( B17 ) 

we would be understood to mean by this is, that at the 
first instant of time that force attempts to manifest 
its presence on substances or matter, it begins by a 
rotary whirling or vortex motion. 

As all space is already filled, we may say, to the 
brim, with force, then you could not produce any more 
or any less. You would have to go outside of space for 
your raw material, and if you think you can reduce 
the quantity, pray tell us where you would deposit 
that which you abstract. Infinite space and the 
spheres may be likened to the ocean and its family of 
fish and other organized bodies that have their growth 
within its depths. All their wants are supplied by 
this parent, the sea. The sea or world in turn is the 
inhabitant of space in which it finds all that is re- 
quisite for its maintenance and, like all other organ- 
isms, each requires its own peculiar diet wherein 
thought is the nurse, substance the food, and force 
the modus operandi. 

We wish to call your attention to what, at the first 
glance, may seem an inconsistency in our general 
hypothesis as regards to our use of the terms mechani- 
cal force and infinite force. Our object in producing 
this Yxork was to build a bridge that should show you 
there was no gulf between the ponderable or material 
world and the imponderable or immaterial world; 
therefore we are using the term mechanical force as 
representing Xewton and Descartes' physical force; 
or, as mechanical force represents or is applied to 
matter and infinite force as applied to the atoms of 
substance — holding as we do that substance was be- 
fore matter and that after matter was produced as a 



(318) 

secondary result of a previous cause there was also, 
by the production of matter, a secondary production 
of force or energy, which is physical, mechanical, or 
Descartes' beginning of mathematics. 

We hope you will perceive how necessary it is that 
you should not be too exacting in your criticism of 
our poverty of words and try and utilize the spirit of 
our remarks. 

For this, it appears to us, was where both Newton 
and Descartes stumbled ; Newton, in failing to recog- 
nize the fact that anything existed beyond so-called 
physical matter and yet asserting as an axiom that 
third law that " for all and every action, there is an 
equal reaction," and then failing to explain by this 
law what reaction it is that is acting on the outermost 
planet. His materialistic tendencies, we fear, warped 
his better judgment and compelled him to put for- 
ward his first law of Inertia, for mechanical calcula- 
tions. His term inert may be sufficiently correct 
when applied to matter if we consider that matter is 
the beginning of physics only ! But our object is to 
try and advance further and show you that meta- 
physics is merely a continuation of physics. Yet 
inertia is certainly not an axiom. You will observe 
that we have used the term inanimation in lieu of 
inertia, and we insist on the truth of our assertion 
that all life, all substance, all matter, and all thought 
is in ceaseless motion. 

Was is for creed or blind devotion 
This whale was brought from out the ocean? 
Here Newton blundered in his notion, 
Tor what 's inert when all 's in motion? 



( 319 ) 

Descartes, in his reply to Princess Elizabeth, we 
think shows his inability to connect the physical with 
the metaphysical when he asserts that " the matter 
attributed to thought is not thought itself and that 
the extension of this matter is quite different from 
the extension of thought." And yet, in the face of this 
assertion, he holds that the soul is united to all parts 
of the body, but fails to identify the two substances. 

It would appear to us that, while Newton may have 
been slightly influenced in his materialistic ideas in 
one direction, that just so, had Decartes a weather 
eye on those burning fagots (for it required a brave 
man to attempt to fill Bruno's shoes in those days) 
when he makes the following remarks : " The 
particles of matter to which the Creator originally 
imparted rectilinear motion, are distributed in vorti- 
ces forming stars. The material world is a machine, 
an indefinite chain of movements, the origin of which 
is in God." 

Here we find that Descartes is still wedded to that 
old traditional creative God, that great personal 
something, to account for a first cause, which leaves 
him, like all the rest, floundering in the mud until 
they produce some tangible evidence of the existence 
of such a being, sun, ideal thought, force or soul of 
things. The trouble has been that all of your 
old school of philosophers leave a gap in their 
philosophy by first beginning with the acknowledg- 
ment that there is or was a previous first cause from 
v hich all came and to which all return, for which they 
offer you no evidence; and then they find it con- 
venient to jump this gap and begin again at physics, 



( 320 ) 

matter or Mr. Huxley's protoplasm. Here they take 
otf their coats, roll up their sleeves and begin with 
" ex nihilo, nihil fit." But to-day modern thought 
calls for this gap to be bridged, and whether we have 
succeeded any better than the old school of thought 
hy and with the assistance of such additional knowl- 
edge as has been developed within the last half 
century through the spirit phenomena is for you to 
decide for yourself. 

OUR RESPECTS TO DESCARTES. 

We feel that we should not drop this subject with- 
out a kind word for Descartes, and will begin by tak- 
ing our sun. Around the sun revolves our solar sys- 
tem of bodies in — we will say — a vortex whirl ; then 
around one of these bodies, for the purpose of illus- 
trating, we will select the earth, is revolving the moon 
in a vortex. Again, around the moon are revolving 
other smaller hodies, and still we find the vortex, and 
around these revolve yet smaller bodies. Now con- 
tinue this principle on down, down to the very single 
spherical atom. This atom attracts another atom. 
May not the condition and position of these two 
atoms just before a junction is effected be a revolving 
motion of the one around the other, but gradually 
drawing closer together until a union is formed, 
when, by this union of two atoms of substance, they 
become the embryo of an organized body of matter? 
Now, if this be the physical condition of substance in 
its first evolutionary advance into matter, we would 
ask you to try and surround our sun and its solar 



( 321 ) 

system of a wheel around a wheel, would not this, as 
a whole body, be the very essence of a vortex or whirl- 
ing motion? Then, if we have advanced a reasonable 
theory backward from the sun to the atom, would it 
not appear that our sun was but one of the minor 
wheels of a still larger system, and so on to infinity? 

The student should bear in mind that Descartes, 
when advancing the vortex theory, did not stop at Mr. 
Huxley's protoplasm, i. e., the first physical recogni- 
tion of an organism in the form of a cell, and then 
jump to the conclusion that he had discovered the 
physical basis of life. But Descartes easily recognized 
that a cell, in however small a boundary or space you 
may find it, is but a vast accumulation of atoms which 
proved their previous possession of life when they dis- 
played thought, force, motion and intelligence in 
coming together in space to produce this very cell. 
For a cell must be possessed of a bottom and sides ; 
hence is subject to division and commensuration. 

So, my friend, you will preceive that, while your 
so-called up-to-date modern philosophers may not be 
too severely condemned if they, like the common run 
of the genus Homo, should think that those old fogies 
were somewhat fossilized in their researches after the 
cause of things ; jet we find such minds as Descartes 
had already passed far beyond Mr. Huxley's halfway 
house of the cell or protoplasm when he points out. 
to us the vortex that formed the matter of the cell. 
As we have maintained from the start that it is no 
part of our work to chase a will-o'-the-wisp by a claim 
of omniscience,yet we are free born and part white and 
have a habit of endeavoring to penetrate even that 



( 322 ) 

which to-day may appear as inscrutable even to Mr. 
Davidson. 

How shall we proceed if not by inquiry? Thus: 
Is Mr. Huxley's protoplasm or cell an existing fact? 
Answer : Yes. Was this cell produced by or through 
the Cartesian vortex? Answer: Yes. Was this vor- 
tex or whirling motion the result or expression of 
force? Is not energy 01 force directed by thought, 
and is not thought, at the present stage of evolution,, 
the limit of human comprehension of life as expressed 
to man? 

If this be the truth, you will perceive that it is not 
necessary for man to possess one of the attributes of 
omniscience, nor yet attempt to penetrate the so- 
called inscrutable or cross the dead-line of infinite in 
order to know and to comprehend that the beginning 
of things starts from the atom of life and substance, 
and, by becoming united, they, the atoms, are the 
cause of all things that are greater than a single 
atom, even though the thing may assume the condi- 
tion of a very God, a great sun or ideal being. While, 
up to the atom, we shall claim that we have kept upon 
the debatable ground of the first cause of things, yet 
we are free to admit that beyond this point it would 
appear to us that man must necessarily enter the field 
of inscrutability. 



( 323 ) 



CHAPTER XXXVIII. 

PLACING THE KEYSTONE. 

Hoping that we have succeeded in molding your 
understanding up to the question as to whether there 
is in existence such a thing as Life, we feel justified 
at this point in our philosophy in answering you in 
the negative and will endeavor to support our position 
in this manner : — 

If you will assume that all force and all thought 
have been annihilated from out of space, what then 
may we ask would stand or be presented to your 
understanding as an expression of life? 

Mr. Xewton's law of inertia, that for every ex- 
pressed force there is a counter force, is perfectly cor- 
rect when applied to matter, — i. e., physical matter, — 
but no further. To this extent, as we have already 
stated, it is purely a mechanical question of foot- 
pounds. But this fact in physics does not explain or 
account for the existence of force previous to the 
existence of matter. 

All physical matter has form, and as a form it is 
subject to commensuration, — i. e., it must have length, 
breadth, and thickness. 

Length is a space between tico points; an atom of 
substance can only come within human comprehen- 
sion as one point without distance, — for if it had dis- 



( 324 ) 

tance or extension it would be again subject to divis- 
ion ; therefore, it must be without form. 

(As we have already explained to you our object in 
using the term matter in the early part of this work 
in lieu of substance, so do we explain our object in 
calling an atom spherical.) Here you will see that 
while substance in the atomic state occupies all space, 
it is without form ; and as the atom is not measure or 
commensuration in itself, but only the beginning of 
them, so also does all space represent the other ex- 
treme end of commensuration. But it is not the three 
or any part of the three dimensions, as it is certainly 
beyond commensuration. 

The fact that the atoms move toward each other for 
a purpose is absolute evidence of the presence of 
thought and force. But how any sane man can assume 
the presence of a third factor as existing previous to 
thought (or substance) and force, and give it the 
name of a definite thing, such as Life, and yet be un- 
able to advance any solvable evidence of such pres- 
ence, is beyond our comprehension. 

Again, we would suggest that if you take away your 
thought, which is the parent of reason and the grand- 
parent of intelligence, what is there left of you or the 
I AM worth the preserving? 

Physically speaking, or as a so-called disembodied 
spirit, how would you establish your identity to your 
earth-friends, taking it for granted that intelligent 
spirit communication is an established fact? 

In our use of the term Life in the early part of this 
work, such as atomic life, object life, over-life, etc., we 
will admit that we lead the student to infer that there 



( 325 ) 

was such an existing thing, and that it was separate 
and apart from any other thing, which would cause it 
to appear to one who only studied fr m a superficial 
point of view that the preceding cl 1 Gravity 

would leave our philosophy in a paradox oal position. 

In order to remove any such impression, we will say 
that any advocate who starts out to promulgate such 
a radically revolutionary and heterodoxical philoso- 
phy of Evolution, if he wishes to have and to hold the 
attention of .his audience (i. e. to have them to under- 
stand his remarks), he should address them in such 
language as they have inherited. 

In other words, it is conceded that, in order to> be 
a successful diplomat, you must first approach your 
opponent by admitting that his views are correct by 
convincing him that he entertains precisely the same 
view of the subject under consideration as yourself. 

Then the only apparent difference is in the position 
that each occupies at the moment of observation, and, 
if he was compelled by circumstances over which he 
had no control during his youthful education to oc- 
cupy his present position, the stability of such posi- 
tion must be determined by the evidence of such axio- 
matic facts as are presented for all human considera- 
tion such as — 

First : Is it not now a conceded fact that Thought 
is a definite existing thing, and has extension? 

Second : Does not force have an absolute existence 
apart from thought and substance? 

Third : Does not substance in infinite division have 
an existence and occupy all space, independent of 
thought and force? 



( 326 ) 

Again : Are not the three capable of demonstrating 
their physical presence to man by a practical applica- 
tion of his senses? 

Now follows the question: Is life a thing that is 
capable of proving its existence as an entity apart 
from force, thought, and substance? Or, rather, is it 
not the effect or expression of the three first named 
when acting in combination, and, like water and 
atmosphere, owes its present existence to the consent 
or cause of some thing previous, — i. e. merely the pro- 
duct of something else and not the producer — the 
effect, and not the cause. 

Ten years ago, or about the beginning of 1890, it 
was that Ave first had the pleasure of your acquaint- 
ance, and, knowing your exceeding desire for a practi- 
cal explanation of spirit phenomena, we recognized 
that, in beginning our explanations of the cause of 
things, it would be necessary for us to use diplomacy. 
Now, as one of the difficulties would be to find a word 
or term that would the most quickly and clearly con- 
vey to you the simple truth as we found it to exist, 
it would require us to frequently make use of terms that, 
while they did not contain the absolute essence of such 
facts as we wished to convey to you, yet, we hope, they 
still answered the purpose or object of the particular 
subject then under consideration. 

Having advanced so far in our work as to find you 
prepared to receive our assertion as to the non-exist- 
ence of Life as an entity without too great a shock to 
what may remain of your orthodoxy, and still being 
unable to coin the proper words to clearly convey this 
truth, we will endeavor to do so by illustration. 



( 327 ) 

For instance : Imagine yourself standing just out- 
side of space and facing so-called creation. What is 
the first thing you perceive? All space. What next 
appeals to your sense of comprehension? Thought, 
force, and substance; or nature divided into three 
separate and distinct infinite entities, each divided 
into its last unit One, yet working harmoniously 
together and for a purpose : But, search as you may, 
you find nothing beyond or previous to these. Then 
you can but come to the conclusion that these three 
entities, so far as human understanding goes, are the 
very germ, spark, or embryo of all other expressions ; 
whether it be in the nature of Life, conscience, will, 
spirit, or matter of form. 

While we have been compelled to apply the term 
imponderable substance to thought, spirit, and soul 
for the want of a word that you could comprehend, 
you now perceive that Thought and Force have an 
infinite existence with substance and, as they exist, 
they must be something other than substance. 

There may come a time in the far-distant future 
when man and spirit shall know what they are com- 
posed of; but all that is known of them to-day is 
that they do exist as primary elementals, and are not 
subject to annihilation. 

Man in his self-importance is inclined to think that 
the only thought in existence is human thought. As 
well might he claim that the only force is human 
force or the only substance human substance. 

Now, please stop here and allow us to ask : What 
do you know as an actual fact as to the composition 
of either thought, force, or substance in its elementary 



( 328 ) 

condition, — i. e. when brought to its last ultimate 
division of the atom? Can the physical senses recog- 
nize either one of the three other than by inference? 

You see a comet's tail, and infer that it is composed 
of particles of substance in the atomic -condition be- 
cause it appeals to your sense of sight, while none of 
your other senses recognize it; and if your inference 
is logically correct, then you are by this inferential 
law compelled to recognize that each atom or particle 
is moved in its definite course by an atom of force; for 
you only recognize atomic force by this one sense of 
sight, — i. e. yoiu see the tail, and see it in motion, for 
you can neither smell, taste, touch, or hear it. There- 
fore, if you have a logical right to infer the one, you 
cannot reject the other ; and if so far our philosophy 
is correct, then it would appear to us that as this tail 
or the body was moving in a definite direction for a 
specific purpose, we have the unqualified right to also 
infer that this establishes the fact of an intelligence 
in atomic form which is accompanying and directing 
the atomic force; and as we further infer from our 
experience and knowledge of physical force as we see 
its effects on ponderable bodies of matter, that it of 
itself , like the matter, displays no evidence of thought 
or intelligence. 

Even when we crook our finger we find that it re- 
quires thought to direct the force. 

You will also bear in mind that we are not claiming 
that either the thought, force, or substance, in this 
its atomic or infinite state, is a fully crystallized 
thought or a fully developed mechanical force capable 
of acting on an organized body of matter, but only 



(329 ) 

accompanies the atomic substance ; for the apple, the 
rose, the earth itself, in the atomic state are bnt as a 
point in space. (See Chapter XL, on Max ] ller's 
philosophy of thought.) 



( 330 ) 



CHAPTEK XXXIX. 

LOWER PHYSICS, PSYCHO-PHYSICS, AND HIGHER OR 
METAPHYSICS. 

There is childhood, manhood, and ripe old age ; 
spring, summer, and winter; past, present, and 
future, and many other like comparisons; and while 
the science of language has seemingly made three dis- 
tinct divisions of these conditions, yet it is not a fact. 
Take, for instance, the first three. Is there a definite 
point in the age of a child where it ceases to be a child 
and becomes a man? 

And so it is Avith time. Can you illustrate, to the 
exact fraction of a second, the space separating the 
now or present from the past or future? 

In this light, you must view the physical, psycho- 
physical, and metaphysical ; or, if you will allow us, 
we will designate it the gross, or lower, physical 
matter, the fully developed physical matter, and the 
comprehensive limit of perfection to all physical 
matter, for matter it unquestionably is. 

We will again ask you : Is there a definite point in 
time where the one condition leaves off and another 
begins, or can man to-day, with his present knowl- 
edge, define where substance, after it is organized into 
form and recognized as physical matter, ceases to be 
matter? 



( 331 ) 

And if you succeed in solving this riddle, then pray 
tell us how or through what channel force demon- 
strates its existence to man : such as the transference 
of thought, clairvoyance, hypnotism, etc. 

As there is evidently motion (i. e. vibration), if not 
matter, what is it that receives the force? In other 
words, what is it that vibrates? 

We can understand that the matter of electricity 
moves on a material wire and are in harmony with 
each other. 

It will not do for the philosophers of to-day to deny 
or pooh-pooh the truth of these phenomena, for they 
are no longer confined to some one obscure village, but 
are now well-established facts, and are being pro- 
duced and acknowledged as such by the most eminent 
minds of all parts of the civilized world. 

If Mr. Darwin's investigation of the origin of 
species filled a gap left open by your philosophers, 
then why not carry your investigations on these lines 
still further, and endeavor to as rationally solve the 
question as to the origin and modus operandi of all 
forms? 

Why halt at species? Do you know of any definite 
gulf that separates the formation of a crystal from 
the formation of a mastodon? Of course, you will 
understand that we are endeavoring to carry your 
reasoning into the metaphysical or limit of compre- 
hension. 

Why has this chimerical idea of a gulf been per- 
mitted to exist in the minds of the people? Was it not 
in the first place for the want of positive knowledge of 
a continuation of thought, force or the I AM. after 



( 332 ) 

the disintegration or death, (so called) of the form or 
body of matter other than by the way of the proto- 
plasm? 

Your scientists heretofore have generally — and, we 
may say, almost to a man — fallen into the same error 
in assuming as a postulate that all substance held no 
other relation to the infinite than as recognized by 
them in the condition which we have designated as the 
lower physical condition. We are now speaking of 
the time in which that most excellent philosopher, 
Immanuel Kant, dwelt among you of the earth, and 
whose works, though written over one hundred years 
ago, are still considered as the best and highest 
authority, at least so far as the lower physical forma- 
tion is concerned. What a grand work that old man 
would have produced had he lived to investigate the 
various spirit phenomena of to-day! 

But the sun do move! We are free to admit that, 
in the absence of those phenomena in his day, science 
concluded that with the end of the earth-life of all 
matter, form, or body that that was the last of its 
existence as matter, and that it then was returned to 
the mills of the gods, earth, in the atomic state as sub- 
stance, to again repeat upon itself. 

One of their arguments advanced to sustain this 
hypothesis was the fact that Mr. Huxley's human 
protoplasm passed into the fish, the fish passed into 
the wild duck and its egg, and the duck or egg was 
returned back again into the human form. 

And another that Mr. Darwin might offer you to 
support his philosophy of the survival of the fittest 
is : first, that the spider feeds upon the slimes of a 



( 333 ) 

dungeon, the toad upon the spider, the snake feeds 
upon the toad, the hog feeds upon the snake, and man 
feeds upon the hog. Hence Ave presume that this fact 
leads Mr. Huxley into the belief that he had dis- 
covered the dead matter of life — i. e. protoplasm. 

We cannot refrain from calling your attention at 
this point to the corroborative evidence here given to 
substantiate the truth that all primeval matter is 
sIoavIv moving upward, but is in this case compelled to 
pass through the lower mills of the gods; i. e. the 
spider, which progressed or prepares it for the next 
mill, the frog, and so on, leaving a little but taking 
more. 

Here you will perceive that that which would have 
been highly deleterious to the human stomach in its 
first stage has become, by the law of evolution, whole- 
some and nutritious food for man. Or, if it so please 
the Gospel sharp, he may here find that man not only 
evolved from the monkey but also from the slimes of a 
dungeon. 

If they could give an account of all the substance, 
or even all of the matter, forming the protoplasm, 
showing to an exactness that all did actually pass 
from the defunct body of the man into the fish, and 
from thence into the duck or egg, and then back into 
the human form, then they might be justified in as- 
suming such a postulate. But have they done so? 
That is the first and most important question for you, 
my friend, to decide. 

We do not wish to stand on an exact technicality 
and confine our demands to the fish or duck alone, for 
some of the matter might have passed into oxygen, 



(334) 

iron, phosphorus, etc.; but science does not carry a 
stock in trade of might-have-beens. This law deals 
only in known truth. Therefore, we insist on your 
ancient and modern philosophers accounting for all 
the substance that was in the human body after it 
entered the water. This, and only this, is strict 
science. 

To these scientists we would say : Gentlemen, you 
exact your pound of flesh from me, and that is correct 
law. But see that you render unto me an exact 
equivalent by accounting for the presence of spirit, 
materialized voices, moving of heavenly bodies, inde- 
pendent writing, raps, hypnotism, healing, material- 
ization, passing one solid body — so-called — through 
another, bringing a letter or purse from a distant 
room, say half a mile away, into a locked room of 
another house; clairvoyance, prophecy, and all the 
various phenomena now occurring all over the civil- 
ized and uncivilized world. And while you are so 
engaged, please do not seek to avoid the facts or beg 
the question by explaining how a fake or counterfeit 
dollar is produced, for that is not our question, but 
rather how the genuine dollar is produced. 

For again we repeat that these facts have presented 
themselves for your consideration, and, as philoso- 
phers, you will excuse us, we sincerely hope, when we 
say meet them you must, for avoid them you can not, 
as they are here to stay and increase in numbers. 



( 335 ) 



CHAPTER XL. 

A COMMENT ON MAX MULLER'S PHILOSOPHY OF 
THOUGHT. 

We cannot refrain from making a few remarks in 
reply to F. Max Muller's paradoxical idea that there 
is no such a thing as reason and then almost immedi- 
ately (i. e. before he has uttered sixty words), de- 
liberately asserts that reason is something, namely, 
language ; that it is the work of man, that there is no 
reason or conception without language; he appears to 
lay some stress on the fact that we cannot tell what 
reason is made of, hence it has no existence, therefore 
as we do not knoAv what Life, substance, and space are 
made of, per se, they have no existence; he appears 
anxious for some philosopher to give him a definition 
of what language is without reason, or reason without 
language. 

Why not ask what motion is without force, or force 
without motion; matter without substance, or sub- 
stance without matter? But we will ask him: Did 
the atom possess a language or words before it con- 
ceived a thought to form an organized cell? Does the 
babe need a language when it displays thought to 
creep to the fire? 

He asks us what reason is composed of. We might 
retaliate by asking him what words are composed of. 
In this case, we think he will be obliged to admit that 



( 336 ) 

they are composed of the vibration of atoms; and as 
vibration is but an effect of substance in motion, it 
has no real existence as a thing. We take it that Max 
Muller intended to illustrate this assertion when he 
quotes Abelard's remarks that language is generated 
by the intellect, and generates intellect. So does Hux- 
ley illustrate his protoplasm by the live lobster eating 
the dead man or dead protoplasm, and thereby con- 
verting it into live protoplasm, when the live man eats 
the dead lobster or dead protoplasm, and again recon- 
verts it into Life; hence this proves from whence 
came the live cell. 

It is possible that we do not understand Max 
Muller but we hope he, as a specialist on words, at 
least understands himself when he asserts that with- 
out language man could never have come to his senses 
(which means, when stripped of its ingenuity, that we 
could neither see, smell, taste, touch, or hear). And 
to him, Max Muller, it always seemed incredible that 
thou glit should have been considered as possible with- 
out language, or that animals think if we define think- 
ing by speaking ; he also asserts that animals have no 
language — hence no senses. 

Let a strange dog enter a barnyard where chickens 
are feeding, and listen to that peculiar cluck-ux-cluck- 
cluck of the cock, uttered as a word of warning to the 
hens of danger; a poultryman may be out of their 
sight and a hundred yards away, and he, the human 
as well as the brute, instantly knows and understands 
the word or sound of danger. Let the cock find a tooth- 
some morsel, and listen to his call. How readily the 
hen understands him! Observe fowls in any part of 



( 337 ) 

the world. This language of theirs, wherein they give 
expression to thoughts of joy and fright, produced 
from an application of their sense of sight, is always of 
the same number of vibratory waves (of substance), 
and is the human voice, m ore or less, when used to con- 
vey the same thoughts to others orally — i. e. merely a 
mechanical or physical force acting on matter to im- 
part motion or vibratory waves of more or less in- 
tensity. Man's vocal organs being more highly de- 
veloped than the cock's, can produce a greater variety 
of sound. 

We must admit that Max Muller, though somewhat 
ingenious in the use of words as a means of expressing 
his thoughts to others, has certainly failed to be as 
readily understood as the cock, and, after a perusal 
of some of his works, we find ourselves somewhat dis- 
appointed in our expectations, for we certainly ex- 
pected that he, as a specialist on the origin of words, 
would at least be sure to so form his own words into 
language that ordinary mortals could not possibly 
fail to understand him at least as comprehensively 
and as quickly as a common barnyard fowl can under- 
stand its mate. To quote one of his expressions, he 
says that embryonic thought that never came to birth 
is not thought at all, but only the material out of 
Avhich thought mag spring (which he borrows from 
Descartes). As he seems to lay great stress on the 
fact that we cannot tell of what material reason is 
made, would it not be highly proper for this expert 
of language and words, if he does not wish to be con- 
sidered paradoxical, to explain to a common mind 
what constitutes the material of an embryo thought? 



( 338 ) 

The object of his three lectures on the science of 
thought as we understand him, is to demonstrate the 
physical basis of thought; then should he not begin 
at the beginning, the embryo itself, and explain the 
difference between infant dead thought and how it is 
made alive; how are we to recognize the promise, of 
a thought, and, if this promise should fail to material- 
ize, what becomes of it? Is this promise, then, trans- 
mogrified into some other thing or docss it meet with 
total annihilation? 

It certainly would seem to us that if we wished to 
arrive at the first cause or beginning of an existing 
thing, that we should seek the cause of the embryo 
itself and satisfy ourselves whether, if this embryo 
should fail to develop into a thought, it were possible 
that it might not slide off at a tangent and become 
something else — one of Davidson's inscrutable things, 
for instance? 

If there could be no thought without language, then 
we are obliged to assume that language was a thing 
that existed previous to thought, in order to be in a 
position to produce this embryo or promise of a 
thought, while we shall contend that just the opposite 
is the fact and shall endeavor to maintain our position 
in this manner : — 

As one (1) is not mathematics itself, but the be- 
ginning of mathematics, and as the end of a yard stick 
is not measure or extension itself, but the beginning 
of extension, just so is an atom of any kind not the 
matter or form, but the beginning of them and, as an 
atom can only come within human comprehension as 
a point in space; and as a point is without length, 



( 339 ) 

breadth, or thickness, hence it is the one (1) or last 
division of things comprehensible to man that occu- 
pies space as an entity to which you may practically 
apply your senses. Therefore, it will naturally follow 
that an atom of substance would require but an atom 
of force to impart to it its first fraction of motion; 
this atom of force, while not physical or mechanical 
force itself, is the beginning of force or the promise of 
a force — i. e. the embryo. 

But even this atomic force we find requires an atom 
of thought to intelligently direct it, and while it is 
not a fully crystallized thought itself, it is the be- 
ginning of thought. (See Descartes letter to 
Princess Elizabeth on the extension of this matter of 
thought, etc., to whom, let us hope, Max Muller forgot 
to give the proper credit for the idea. We think that 
had Descartes made a distinction between matter and 
atomic substance, he could have avoided his blunder 
in giving extension to embryonic thought.) Here you 
find the unquestionable evidence of the presence of 
thought coincidental with force and substance as the 
actual beginning of comprehension. 

Xow allow us to ask: How would you proceed to 
atomize language? 

As language is not an entity, the question of exten- 
sion has nothing to do with it, but when first recog- 
nized it is as vibratory waves of matter in motion act- 
ing on the auditory nerve, and but an effect caused by 
the combined action of thought, force, and substance 
in motion. 

Either an entity or the five senses can exist as a fact 
or truth without the use of words, language, or human 



( 340 ) 

reason, and as it is now an acknowledged fact that 
thought is an entity and subject to motion, you are 
compelled in tracing its origin to go to the atom or 
one of mathematics and not stop at P. Max Mulleins 
half-way house by starting your investigation at the 
matter out of which thought may spring, for this 
would leave you still another question to solve lying 
previous to the existence of matter, namely: From 
whence came matter if not from the atom of sub- 
stance? 

As regards the promise of a thought, or whether 
such a thing has a tangible existence or not: Well, 
to be as charitable as exact science will allow, we must 
confess that all of our researches have been confined 
to those truths lying within the limit of physics, 
psycho-physics, and metaphysics; therefore, we do 
not feel justified in risking an opinion, pro or con, as 
to what may spring from the beyond, or the what-or- 
how this promise may present itself to the human sen- 
ses for a recognition of its existence. 

We are willing to concede that language stands as 
a representative of thought in a limited degree, yet 
it is not a perfect representative ; while, on the other 
hand, a thought, if it, like force and substance, be 
infinite, is in the superlative degree; for though 
force and substance may differ in quantity, yet they 
could not differ in quality if atomized; and as we 
think we have conclusively shown that force has an 
existence as an entity apart from substance, so do we 
assert that thought is an entity other than substance. 
and beyond the fact that they prove their existence 
to man by their apparent effect on matter as separate 
entities of nature, man has no further knowledge. 



( 341 ) 

However, we feel inclined to give you one other 
illustration as to how the matter of form was pro- 
duced from the atom of substance where one atom 
shall represent the beginning; two, the dawn, spark, 
or Max Muller's promise of a form (thought) ; three, 
the embryo ; and four, a full-born thought or body. 

In order that you may clearly comprehend us, we 
will suggest that you take four marbles in your hand. 
Now, consider that each of these marbles represents 
one single atom of substance, thought, or force (as 
the process of evolving is the same). Now, lay 
down one atom ( marble ) on the table ( Fig. 1 ) ; 
Fi &- L this of itself, being a point in space, is without 
length, breadth, or thickness, the beginning 
or promise of extension. Next place the 
second atom (Fig. 2) beside it, and just Fig - 2 - 

touching it ; here you find length or exten- 

i^P. sion, but neither breadth nor thickness. 

4jfc*ffc This Avould represent the dawn, spark, or 

promise of a form, i. e. the matter of exten- 

Fig. 3. * 7 

sion, or birth of matter. You will now 
place beside these two, and just touch- 
ing them both, the third atom, here we 
find length and breadth, but no thickness 
(Fig. 3). This will represent the birth 
of form (a triangle), but not a body 
itself, as it yet lacks thickness. Finally, you 
place the fourth atom (or marble) on the top of 
these three, when you perceive for the first time a full 
formed body (Fig. 4) of either force, thought, or a 
molecule of matter subject to the three dimensions of 
space, and from thence on a full-fledged entity, a deni- 
zen of space. At this stage of the uniting of the first 



pi* 



( 342 ) 

four units or atoms is absolutely the very first appear- 
ance or birth of an organized body, and where it ceases 
to be atomized substance and is the birth of a body of 
matter, this we may call the first step or beginning 
of the evolution of matter. After this follows involu- 
tion, to again evolve. 

When these minute bodies acting in harmony with 
other bodies produce or give birth to mechanical 
force, such as gravity, magnetic attraction, friction, 
heat, light, etc., — and in this condition is what is 
termed the lowest or first molecule of matter, — is not 
this an organized body? 

And, though embraced by the three dimensions of 
space, many cycles of time shall yet roll by before man 
shall be able to perceive it by his sense of sight, and 
then only by artificial means far superior to your 
microscope. 

Also, while matter is in this its first condition of 
form it is the physical basis of so-called organized 
life, as Mr. Huxley's cell could not appear on the 
stage of existence without the aid of these bodies ; for 
you could not place these four marbles (atoms) in 
such a position as would form a cell ; in other words, 
as one marble would represent one atom of substance, 
just so would the uniting of the four marbles repre- 
sent the single molecule of matter or embryonic 
thought. 

It is a common thing for physical scientists to put 
forward the following as a postulate : " Before a 
thing can evolve it must first be involved." This, you 
will perceive, is an absurd hypothesis when viewed 
from its absolute point of beginning, — that is, as a 
single atom of anything. 



< 343 > 

" It seemed to me that I did but dream that I was 
dreaming of a dream," — i. e., the spark of life and 
matter. The very first conception in the human mind 
of a thing is its last division or single state of one 
(1) or oneness; this Avould precede involution; for 
a thing to involve, it must enter into some other thing 
that already existed as an entity. 

To illustrate this Ave will conceive of a single atom 
standing alone in space. In this condition it is but a 
point, having neither length, breadth, nor thickness, 
it attracts unto it, not into (for it could not enter a 
thing that had no inside) another atom. This is the 
very first move on the chessooard of physics , at least 
so far as human comprehension can go, and at this 
point it begins to evolve, advance, change, or pro- 
gress; for we find that by being joined by another 
atom, it has doubled its quantity, its intelligence, and 
its importance as a factor in the evolving of all other 
thiDgs that man has any knowledge of. Herefrom 
we deduce that involution is the natural sequence of 
evolution; for involution could only apply its po- 
tency to matter as it changed from one form to 
another ; and as form did not make its appearance in 
space so as to be recognized as a form until the join- 
ing of the third atom, then it naturally follows that 
involution is the second move on the chessboard of 
things that be, — i. e. matter of form and body or 
breadth and thickness. To extend or to add to a line 
is not to involve, but to evolve; by this view of the 
case you will perceive that Darwin, the father of 
evolution, is still on deck. 

And now as to our explanation in regard to what 



(344) 

F. Max Muller probably had reference to in his 
promise of a thought ; this we deem an act of justice 
to Descartes as well as to F. Max Muller. 

The object of promulgating a philosophy is to place 
before the lay mind, or common mass of people, such 
plain explanation of the truth as will not only appeal 
to, but satisfy, the reasonable common sense of an 
average mentality. If it fails to do this, it subjects its 
advocate, to a fair, just, and impartial criticism from 
others, as regard to the truth or probability of such 
j)hilosophy. 

It would therefore appear to us that we are com- 
pelled to begin all of our investigations at Descartes' 
mathematical one (1), or unit, which is conceived 
to be a point, — i. e. a single atom. Then we find first 
an atom of thought; this thought acts upon or di- 
rects an atom of force ; this force acts upon an atom 
of substance, to produce motion. Here we think that 
Descartes erred in assuming that an atom of sub- 
stance was matter itself already made to hand and 
extended, because he assumes that thought is matter, 
but not subject to extension. 

While we declare that, though thought does actual- 
ly exist as an entity in space, and is a subject of ex- 
tension by the addition of other atoms of thought, yet 
it, like force, exists as some thing other than sub- 
stance, and in its first recognized state of one thing, 
it is without extension, be that one thing thought, 
force, or substance. 

And at this point of the physical beginning of 
things, is for a fact not only the promise of a thought, 
as per F. Max Muller, or the so-called matter out of 



( 345 ) 

which thought inay spring, according to" Descartes, 
but the promise of all else that is subject to human 
cognition. 

We will illustrate it in this way : By assuming the 
atom to be a single brick in a loose mass of bricks, 
this brick is the promise of a building only, or that 
single unit out of which a building may spring, but 
you could not say that it was a building in embryo, 
from the fact that as an embryo it must be extended, 
which would require two bricks at least to pre-estab- 
lish an organism of matter — i. e. a building — where 
the first two units have come together for a precon- 
ceived purpose. This would be the birth, and not the 
promise, of a thing, such as thought, force, and 
matter; for at this stage it ceases to be atomic sub- 
stance and become;: the matter of extension. 

Again were there nothing there whatever, there 
could be no conception of a promise; for were it only 
in the nature of a feather, we might have the promise 
out of which a goose may spring, etc., by which we 
mean there must be some one thing present of the 
nature of the form promised or come to the conclusion 
that the feather could fly off at a tangent by force, 
blindly acting in the dark, and become a meeting- 
house, or one of those inscrutable things that present 
not even a promise. 

By this explanation (if it be the most plausible 
one) , you will be enabled to understand why we credit 
Max Muller with having great ingenuity in the use 
of words ; for while he traced his embryonic thought 
to the promise of a thought, he was ingenious enough 
not to trace or explain from whence came this 



(346) 

promise, as he is compelled to acknowledge that some 
things must precede a promise of a thing, else how 
are we to expect or recognize that this promise exists 
at all? 

Is sound a thing, an entity? Is language or words 
anything else than sound? 

Is sound anything else than an effect of some thing 
in motion (substance) ? 

Now, how are we to recognize even the promise of 
a word or sound without thought? For if language 
produced thought, it must precede or exist before the 
work it produces, and naturally in the atomic state 
of the one unit before it is extension. 

Certainly some one thing must previously exist to 
produce this effect called vibration; and again we 
ask, What is the recognized nature of the preceding 
thing that holds out this promise? 

If the answer be that language is not a thing, then 
allow us to inquire by what process nothing can pro- 
duce something f For thought undoubtedly is some- 
thing, from the fact of its being subject to transporta- 
tion — that is, thought-transference — some thing upon 
which force must act before we can recognize motion. 

In short, after a careful study of Max Muller's pam- 
phlet entitled " Science of Thought," — i. e. his lec- 
tures given at the Koyal Institution of London in 
1887, — the thought intrudes upon us that had he 
changed the title to the " Science of Meaning," he 
could have avoided in a measure the creepy chills 
traversing his spinal column when others speak in 
his presence of language as mere words. Surely no 
one will dispute the fact that meaning is the founda- 
tion as well as the. capstone of all that is. 



(347 ) 

Hence the question is, in our endeavor to discover 
a proper place for all capstones, Which of the various 
roads to Rome shall we select? Shall we call to our 
assistance thought, that we may conceive a word to 
express a meaning, or shall we conceive a word that 
we may think a meaning? 

And if it be found upon further inquiry that neither 
road is correct, pray do not refer us to such profound 
logics, as that we reason by reasoning, see by seeing, 
hear by hearing. Hence we conceive by conceiving 
thought-words as word-thoughts, in the same manner 
that Huxley accounts for the protoplasm of the 
lobster. Furthermore, to the student we will say that 
we are not willing to concede that it is at all probable 
that either Mr. Galton, the Duke of Argyle, or our- 
selves have misunderstood the professor's meaning, 
for we find he has as it were, placed before us the two 
horns of a dilemma only one of which must be chosen 
d. w. t. 

Either that concept and a think are synonymous 
terms preceding words by which we coin a word (or 
sign) to express said concept, or think; or concept 
and words are synonymous terms preceding a think 
out of which a thought is first produced. 

For this think-words, or word-thinks, is merely 
begging the question ; it is neither philosophical nor 
reasonable common sense, and the most palpable error 
he makes is in asserting that man could not have come 
to his senses without language. 

It would have been more of the philosopher had he 
said that man could never have come to his F. Max 
Mutter's sense that language precedes Thought. 



(348 ) 

Not that we would intimate that Max Muller was 
in the slightest degree tinctured with the hereditary 
teachings of Kant, that those who do not conceive as 
I conceive by my process of rational common sense 
" are those who from the rank and file of shallow 
fools, who measure their strength with the profound 
thinker." 

How unfortunate it may be for the rank and file of 
mortals that as yet are unable to determine who these 
profound thinkers are, after giving reasonable atten- 
tion to so rational a thinker as our friend Max Muller, 
or is it probable that Kant's age of criticism is to be 
considered as a thing of the past? 

How strange it is that such profound thinkers as 
Kant, Oswold, Beattie, and others should deem it 
necessary to imply that those who conceive a thought 
to express a conviction as to the reliability of the 
evidence of their own senses are not as well qualified 
to arrive at a reasonable solution of truth as Kant, 
Keid, Stewart, and others, unless they view it through 
the same glasses as themseh T es. It is certainly not in 
good taste to imply, that those who differ with them 
were merely bidding for the applause of the rabble. 
for after all it would seem to us that the difference 
(if any) lay between the tweedle-dee and the tweedle- 
dum of Hume's good sense and Kant's rational 
thought. 

To appeal directly to Kant's own words, he asserts 
" that common sense is a precious gift of God, but we 
must prove it by its acts, by deliberate and rational 
thought and speech, and not appeal to it as an oracle, 
whenever reason fails us." 



( 349 ) 

Now, allow us to ask of Mr. Kant has he and com- 
pany any rational knowledge of the truth of his asser- 
tion that a God presented himself and friends with 
this precious thing he calls common sense and with- 
held it from the average mentality; and in giving it 
did he also convey to them some mystic key which 
enables them to arrive at all absolute truth unalloyed 
by past hereditary teachings f 

Is it not the power that is inherent in all mortals 
to exercise the -five senses that they may conceive a 
thought the primary condition necessary for the de- 
velop})} cut of rational reason? 

And is a reference or appeal to common sense any- 
thing other than rational reason? 

This compels us to inquire as to 

WHAT IS RATIONAL REASON? 

When all of the five natural senses, or so mamy of 
them as are applicable to the subject-matter under 
consideration, have had reasonable time to report to 
the entire brain their own cognition of the phenomena 
as presented to them for their reception, thus giving 
each natural sense a fair and reasonable time to be 
heard by the entire brain. And you then give the 
entire brain a reasonable time to receive the five, or 
less, reports. 

This of itself is the act of producing a crystallized 
him tan thought. This, we infer, is what Kant and 
others meant when they tried to draw a distinction 
between common sense and rational reason. 

And now to the point : Does reason or common 
sense offer any evidence of the existence of either an 



( 350 ) 

oracle or a giving God? When he (Kant) is in want 
of something that he does not possess, does he appeal 
to this giving God or oracle and deny me the right to 
the same appeal to my oracle? 

While we entertain the highest regard for the 
philosophy of Immanuel Kant, and believe that he 
meant to advance the truth only of the things that 
are, yet Kant was mortal and subject to the shadows 
and tinctures of those who passed before, and it re- 
quires but little effort on the part of the student to 
detect the finger-marks of scholasticism, still having 
its baleful hereditary influence on one who wished to 
be free. 

And how could it be otherwise? Let the student 
begin his investigations with Thales, some six hun- 
dred years before Christ, and follow those who fol- 
lowed Thales until you reach the time of Kant. Each, 
you will perceive, is tinctured with the philosophy of 
his predecessor, but is slowly advancing out of dark- 
ness — i. e. gaining a little. By what, if not the 
reasonable application of his common sense? 

And when Kant produced in print his particular 
philosophy, to what did he appeal when soliciting our 
judgment, if not to our common sense? 

Or were it necessary for you and I, my friend, in 
case we did not conceive as he conceived to have re- 
course to an oracle or that giving God? 

By way of a parenthesis Ave would ask is not Kant 
appealing to this same cheap notoriety when he ap- 
peals to his giving God? Has he proved the existence 
of such a God by his particular system of rational 
reason? Those who live in glass houses should not 
throw stones. 



( 351 ) 

From these remarks we wish it to be clearly and 
distinctly understood that we fully recognize the dif- 
ference between a hasty conclusion regarding the 
truth of all phenomena and that slow, cautious, and 
patient process that all rational pioneer thinkers 
should (if freed from hereditary influence) exercise 
in arriving at a philosophical conclusion regarding 
the actual facts, either in a scientific or rational com- 
mon-sense view. And, if this be the fact, what is the 
first precept to be established? Is it not absolute 
freedom from all hereditary or preconceived ideas? 
AVhich for a fact is an impossibility, for do you not 
depend (we may say) almost entirely upon your past 
hereditary experience in arriving at what you think 
is the exact truth of any solution — i. e. the evidence 
{such as it is) of your five natural senses? 

"Next comes the question, Does not the teaching 
that you received from your parents and your public 
or Sunday-school teachers, to a certain extent, still 
have an influence on your mind, conscience, or will? 

Then if this be a philosophical fact, allow us to ask 
Messrs. Kant, Beattie, Stewart, Oswold, Reid, and 
others of like opinion, in what miraculous manner 
they were enabled to throw off this taint of heresy 
sufficiently to authorize them to say what the differ- 
ence is between, we reason by reasoning, and acquire 
common sense from experience; in other words, 
gentlemen, pray impart to us the secret of how you 
became freed from this hereditary disease, in order 
that we, the rabble, may also become free. If so be, 
you labored for the benefit of the world. 

For we assume that you were perfectly aware, that 



(352 ) 

there would accrue to you no financial profit from the 
mere sale of your books. In fact we are not aware of 
a single work on philosophy that ever returned to its 
author the cost of its issue. This being the case we 
are forced to the conclusion that the sole object was 
to benefit the people of earth without regard to race, 
creed or those holding scholarships in particular uni- 
versities. 

Before Huxley or Max Muller are entitled to a 
serious hearing as to their explanation of the physical 
basis of either life or thought. It would appear to us 
as incumbent upon them to first establish as a fact 
that such a thing as physics, of itself, had an actual 
existence and by what particular earmarks they or the 
lay world are enabled to recognize it as a something. 

Having continued this article to greater length 
than we first intended, the student will perceive that 
it resolves itself into the following questions; and 
we are inclined to think that a direct answer would 
be of inestimable value to this same rabble who now 
find themselves within the embrace of the dark folds 
of this metaphorical cuttlefish, such as — 

First — Did physics exist before matter? 

Second — Is there any known way to 
matter before it is extended? 

Third — Did it require motion before it could be- 
come extension? 

Fourth — Was it extended for a purpose? 

Fifth — Could there be purpose without thought? 

Sixth — Did it move or become extended before it 
thought, or did it think first and move afterwards? 

If their answers be, that all change having a defi- 



( 353 ) 

nite object in view for a specific purpose is of itself 
the evidence of the presence of thought (and we can- 
not see how the answer could be otherwise) , then as 
question, — 

Seven — Is not thought the basis of physics as it 
existed before physics? 

Eighth — Could it (substance), even start to move 
for the purpose of becoming extended without force? 

Xinth — Is thought of itself any part of force, or 
force any part of thought, or is substance a part of 
either ? 

Tenth — Does not the fact as elucidated i. e., that 
it requires the presence of the three to establish an 
action, prove of itself the presence of, or constitute 
that which you recognize as Life? 

Eleventh — When this action takes place, and the 
substance first becomes the matter of extension, and 
before it becomes a body of matter, is this the first ap- 
pearance of quickening, animation, or the dawn of the 
life of matter? 

Twelfth — If this be the first recognized appearance 
of life, would it not be the basis of life and did not this 
condition first exist before the cell or protoplasm 
could come into existence? 

Thirteenth — Then, is not the matter of extension 
the physical basis of life and not the matter of a ceil 
or body the basis? 

Of the great teacher, Christ, it is said that he came 
to those who were not saved (educated) and not to 
those who were already saved. Therefore under this 
view we will close this article by inquiring : Why do 
you waste so much valuable space in your books on 



( 354 ) 

philosophy (if really intended for the public) by so 
frequently interjecting Greek, Latin, and other words 
long since dead to this class of people you are pleased 
to term the rabble if you are sincere in your desire 
to advance them out of this condition of ignorance? 



( 355 ) 



CHAPTER XLI. 

IS IT RIGHT TO KILL? 

We will begin by asking you, Is it wrong to kill? 

We will assnme that you mean morally right. 
First, it will be necessary to arrive at a definite under- 
standing of the word right and wrong. Who is the 
judge of right but yourself? No one has even the 
moral right to fix a standard of right for another, as 
it is a matter of personal opinion only. If a personal 
God or being created all things, then the property 
would, of course, belong to him, and he or his agents 
would have the right to say how it should be disposed 
of. 

This, then, places the onus on you to produce your 
owner, and also prove ownership; and until you do 
so, each individual possesses a squatter's title to all 
that he has in his possession. 

Here you will perceive that all men of average in- 
telligence possess a monitor, spirit, or conscience, if 
you please to so designate it. These men will ac- 
knowledge that, irrespective of the opinion of others, 
there is a something indescribable which seems to be 
within them, that, when called upon by themselves 
for an answer as to the right or wrong of an act which 
they are about to perform, never fails to give, at least 
to them, a satisfactory response. 



( 356 ) 

In this connection it is sometimes said that the 
wish is father to the thought, and so justice is 
blinded ; but wherever reason is given an opportunity 
to assert her sway, this little monitor never fails to 
respond, and by so doing proves that the spirit is 
superior to, and would govern and improve, the physi- 
cal or animal in man. 

Next comes the question to kill. Here we would 
ask the counter question, Can you kill? If to kill 
means to destroy life or animation, then we would 
answer that as we think we have established the fact 
that there is no death, it follows, then, as a matter of 
course, that you can not destroy life or animation; 
hence the question, when viewed in this light, is self- 
condemnatory. But when you view it in its proper 
relation to matter or organized atomic substance, 
which is to interfere with the regular law of sympa- 
thetic attraction that produces an organized body or 
form of any and all kinds whatsoever that come to- 
gether for the purpose of advancing their condition, 
then our answer would be both yes and no, just as 
your spirit or monitor should dictate to you. 

You will probably grasp our meaning more clearly 
if we should put our answer to the question, "Is it 
right to kill?" in the form of a counter-question, as 
follows : Does not man kill the lion and eat thereof, 
that he may advance his physical form? 

Now please follow this analysis down the line. The 
lion kills the dog for the same purpose, the dog the 
cat, the cat kills the chicken, the chicken the bug, the 
bug kills the insect, the insect kills the microbe, thp 
microbe feeds upon the monad, while the monad or 
cell owes its existence to the atom. 



(357 ) 

This same law of form or being applies also to the 
vegetable and mineral kingdom. And it is a well- 
known fact that the wisest minds among you up to 
the present day have failed to draw or discover the 
line of demarcation just where the mineral leaves off 
and the vegetable organism begins, or where the vege- 
table leaves off and the animal begins. 

Heretofore scientists have endeavored to draw a 
distinction between their so-called animated and in- 
animated life ; but we shall still insist that they have 
failed in establishing such a line. 

It is true that it is altogether unnecessary for them 
to point out to us the difference between a meeting- 
house and a lobster. The cell or protoplasm is in the 
vegetable as well as the animal and mineral forma- 
tion. For every one hundred forms killed or disinte- 
grated, nature produces more than a hundred bodies 
to take their places, but of a slightly higher order. 
There was a time when there were no human forms 
on the earth — only forms of a lower order; but as 
substance evolved round and round the wheel of 
evolution, the human form as well as many others, 
stands as living evidence of the truth that all matter 
is improving or advancing higher, and nearly all 
forms advance only by this process of killing or feed- 
ing upon one another. 

" Large fleas have little fleas, 
And these have fleas to bite 'em; 
While these again have smaller fleas, 
And so ad infinitum/' 



( 358 ) 

These remarks we hope will serve to show you the 
absurdity of some of the various cults or creeds which 
advocate the doctrine that it is not only wrong to eat 
meat of any kind, but also wrong to kill any animal ; 
yet these very same people will not hesitate to kill 
and feed upon the vegetable. 

If, as they advocate, a Holy Ghost created the ani- 
mal, did he not also create the vegetable in precisely 
the same manner? 

The maw, or stomach, is only one of the many mills 
of the gods, with its eternally grinding motion, the 
force to operate the same being supplied by nature's 
positive and negative law of attraction and repulsion. 
Fire is another important mill. What is the light of 
fire but the rapid separation of the atoms of substance 
by the law of repulsion? How does it purify matter? 
Only by giving individual freedom to the atom to be- 
gin another form. 

You will, we hope, perceive that to kill under this 
definition is not to destroy either life or animation, 
but is merely the regular order in which matter 
changes from one form or shape into another, or inte- 
grates to disintegrate. Does not the vegetable feed 
upon the minute animalcule, which, in turn, feeds up- 
on the disintegrating atoms of the manure or carcass? 
This is not death but a continuation of life. You will 
understand that the over-life of the form or body is 
still in existence in an imponderable condition or 
spirit. 

We think we see upon your mind the thought: If 
this over-life is in existence after the separation of its 
physical atoms, then show us this life in some 
maniier. 



( 359 ) 

In reply it is only necessary to ask: Can yon see 
or sense yonr present life in a physical manner? 

Are yon yet inclined to forget that all of that which 
is real is in an invisible condition to yonr physical 
senses? Then, to kill under these circumstances is the 
infallible law, or evolution must cease. 

We would ask : If you can kill a body, would it not 
be necessary to first have a body to kill? Now, go 
back in this our philosophy and answer the question 
in the affirmative, if you can, At what time did it be- 
come a body, or form, and at what time did it cease to 
be a body, and by just what physical process did this 
change take place? 

If it was not the intention of nature to hill in this 
manner, then all forms would continue to enlarge; 
for nature abhors a state of rest as well as a vacuum. 
Where, then, would she procure her material? Not 
only would we have one of Laplace's great suns, but 
countless millions of them. 

Eound and round the circular vortex we pass in a 
spiral manner, both in the process of integration as 
well as disintegration. Seat yourself in a still room 
by the window where the sun's rays are passing in; 
light a cigar; then slowly eject the smoke; now ob- 
serve the atoms as they are set free from the body of 
the cigar in the form of smoke. You will observe that 
they are gradually losing their sympathetic attraction 
for each other and separating farther and farther 
apart. You will also observe that they do not move 
in a straight line but in a vortex whirl. 

From this fact you will infer that the law of repul- 
sion or disintegration is the same modus operandi as 



( 360 ) 

attraction or integration. Let the time of one revolu- 
tion or whirl be a secondary consideration, it may be 
a second or a million years ; thus we are justified in 
our deductions when you consider that the full life of 
some objects is but a few minutes while other forms 
continue for years. 

All forms have an objective point in the future to 
attain their full physical growth, called their average 
age; this age of the form is, as you are aware, very 
various. 

The earth itself has a point of time in the far dis- 
tant future when it, as a physical form, shall have 
reached its full development as physical matter. We 
are justified in this hypothesis from the known fact 
that it had a beginning, hence it must have an end, 
and we are further justified in this assumption from 
the fact that all the minor forms it produces, such as 
the apple, man, etc., have a physical limit; and as the 
spirit of man continues to exist after the so-called 
death of its physical form, then why not all other 
forms which had their origin in precisely the same 
manner, even the earth itself. 

The spirit which is left after the dissolution of the 
physical, being still matter though imponderable, col- 
lected its matter from the earth; then, if this drain 
shall continue, as it certainly must unless the earth 
form is replenished from some other unknown source, 
is it not apparent that there must come a time when 
there shall be no more physical earth-matter to draw 
from? 

This fact will serve to illustrate to you that the age 
of a physical form is an incomprehensible quantity, 



( 361 ) 

from its first two organized atoms to the earth itself. 
And thus do the mills keep slowly moving, round and 
round, in this vast boundless amazing swirl of evolu- 
tion, giving a little but taking more. 

And as physical life is but a span 
Then solve this riddle, you who can. 



CHARITY. 

As no one reaches perfection that we have any 
knowledge of, it would seem to us that not alone 
Socrates, but those that have attempted to follow him, 
have overlooked this branch of virtue as related to 
temperance ; for when a man has reached that exalted 
height that he can positively assert as a truth that he 
is a just or good man, this state would be physical per- 
fection, which would bring us to the end of evolution 
— i. e. perfection, — so far as the object of physical life 
is understood. 

Then, to be temperate in our association with our 
fellowman is to exercise such a proportionable 
amount of charity in every individual case as may pre- 
sent itself for our consideration, hence we deduce 
that charity is a fundamental function of virtue and 
justice, to be meted out as the exigency of the occas- 
ion may require. 

While these remarks are a little foreign to our par- 
ticular line of philosophy (or the road that we have 
seen fit to travel in our endeavor to reach Rome) , yet 
we cannot refrain from calling your attention to this 
apparent fact: How little progress in philosophy 



( 362 ) 

your modern thinkers have made over and above that 
which was first promulgated by Socrates, the father of 
philosophy; i. e. when you strip your modernly be- 
spangled garments from off the crude production of 
one who was not ashamed to acknowledge that he tvas 
guided by a spirit. 

For be that spirit demon, devil, or angel, to him, a 
wise man of his time, in the evolution of things, it 
mattered not, so long as the teachings were superior 
to the present egotistical sophistry of the time and 
had a tendency to make men better by a knowledge of 
truth from an application of the common sense of 
things that are. 

And now, in these few brief remarks, we take occas- 
ion to say that if in the future development of knowl- 
edge it shall appear that we have dealt unjustly with 
those who advocate a different philosophy from ours, 
we hope that they may have so developed that charity 
of which we speak as shall convince them that if we 
have so erred it was from ignorance of, shall we say, 
the hypothecated truths of the spirit of matter as we 
understand its presentation to this generation. 

For we do find at this day all kinds of opinions ema- 
nating from those who should be, if they are not, rea- 
sonably well educated in the science of metaphysics; 
some denying and others affirming the truth of spirit 
forces — preachers, bishops, and laymen. However, 
it is easy to see the egoist merely fears for the loss of 
his occupation, — i. e. his bread and butter, — for while 
the more just among them admit that spirits do com- 
municate, their opinion is (and it is only an opinion) 
that they are bad spirits. 



( 363 ) 

If they were correct in this opinion, then the con- 
trary or negative of good holds the balance of power 
beyond the grave, and it would behoove mortals to 
determine just how far the good could encroach on the 
domain of the bad and not be bad, and, in like manner 
how bad a man could be to just miss the gates of hell. 
As there is no definable line between the insect that 
steals the body of a microbe and the man who steals 
the body of a lion, it would seem to us that to locate 
this line of demarcation would stagger the rhetorics 
of a Protagoras, the philosophy of Socrates, or the 
common sense of justice — i. e. according to Hume or 
Kant's rational common sense. 

We contend that a temperate or moderate course in 
all things is to the best interest of the individual or 
community, either in a spiritual or material sense, 
at the present stage of evolution, as from a backward 
glance we see the same old reliable mill of the gods is 
still grinding out such a grist as is suitable to the 
exigencies of the time and people; and just where 
mortality closes the book at the grave, at that page it 
is opened in immortality to continue the work on a 
higher plane of comprehension. 

But we find the differentiation from the lowest ex- 
treme is one continuous advance to higher and higher 
unfoldment on the spirit-side of life precisely as it is 
on the mortal plane. 

The cause of the misconception among mortals as 
regards their ideas of what so-called heaven and hell 
should be, is their hereditary teaching which, you are 
aware, is as many and various as the entire number 
of mortals now peopling the earth, for no two things 
or ideas are alike. 



(364) 

Hence man, in his egoism, has taken the responsi- 
bility upon himself to say just what shall constitute 
the attributes and essence of God by setting up as the 
standard of measure by which all men shall be judged 
the following : Justice, truth, virtue, conscience, rea- 
son, knowledge, ("thou shalt not kill." Kill what?) 
This is nothing more or less that a man made God. 
That these attributes are the best that man has in his 
shop up to date is not to be denied, and if, as the 
credulists affirm, there is no communication between 
the physical and the spirit world, how then can they 
assert that these in particular are what constitute a 
whole or any part of the infinite system of eternal pro- 
gress. 

The ego in its relation to the infinite, what its pur- 
pose is, or what the exact nature of infinite perfection 
is, is absolutely beyond all spirit of human compre- 
hension. Man only infers that these attributes are 
good from his power of observation of the various ef- 
fects that change produces in and on physical matter. 
How absurd, then, to say that this or that is good and 
godlike for, of a truth, it is only like them as you con- 
ceive them to be, for you cannot liken or compare a 
thing to that which neither the so-called mind, con- 
science, ego, or spirit can perceive, either subjective- 
ly or objectively, as having an opposite. 

For instance, to place the highest human construc- 
tion on what is God would be to say it is the entire 
amount in quantity and quality of all that be or is 
(pantheism). Now the opposite to this would be 
nothing, or a state of nothingness, and as the mind 
cannot for a fact grasp these two extremes, even as an 



( 365 ) 

idea, then it follows that you cannot form or conceive 
the slightest knowledge of what perfection is or 
whether evolution has jet had time to bring all that is 
face to face with infinite perfection, (perfection not 
vet being born ) . This in turn would be sufficient evi- 
dence that you could not conceive of a thing that did 
not exist, or draw a comparison of something that did 
exist with something that did not exist. 

Let us inquire a little further. Is it right to love 
the Good and Beautiful? While we do not wish to be 
frivolous, yet we feel inclined to ask you a very practi 
cal question that will in a measure apply to this 
article as regards the right to love the Good and 
Beautiful; i. e. are these things, and have they real 
existence, or are they mere ideas or opinions? 

By way of illustration we will say: here stand a 
dozen hungry cannibals. Before them is a well- 
roasted, fat missionary. To these cannibals four 
absolute truths present themselves for their con- 
sideration, d. w. t. is it right to admire and love the 
Good and Beautiful? 

These people have as undoubted a right to satisfy 
their hunger on roast missionary as you have on roast 
monkey or any other roast. Then follows as a ques- 
tion of truth, is it not good to them, and do they love 
it? At that stage of their appetite, is it not one of 
the most beautiful of things? Now, please consider 
this missionary's ideas of truth, right, etc., before the 
roasting. Was it not just the opposite? Then allow 
us to ask if these things be other than mere ideas, be- 
liefs, or opinions? 

Then, how can an existing thing be its own opposite 



( 366 ) 

at one and the same time? We can not conceive of 
how a thing can be right and the same time wrong, or 
love and hate, good and bad, etc. This will serve to 
show that all of those so-called attributes of con- 
science are derived entirely from your hereditary 
teachings and surroundings; that which your sur- 
roundings teach you to conceive, to be right and good. 
Their conditions lead them to conceive the opposite, 
and only omniscience may answer or determine this 
question. 

With space as our canvas and time for a pencil 
We Ve traced from a point the atom I ween. 
With thought as a factor, and force as the actor, 
The substance of matter the Ego's unseen. 

Through the long lapse of ages and the work of your Sages, 

Is conscience or will a thing to be bought? 

And if thus disposed of the remainder we know of, 

As we seem but to reason by adding a thought. 

I conceive by a think that the spirit may link 
Not the will but the soul to the Ego may be. 
Eor to reason by reason were a paradox treason 
To the mind, the I AM, that strives to be free. 



( 367 ) 



CHAPTEE XLII. 

A REVIEW AND ADIEU. 

Veritatis simple® oratio est. 

The atoms of substance that compose a single drop 
of blood are but the functional parts of that organized 
drop of blood; the drops of blood that compose the 
body are but functions of the organized body; the 
bodies that compose the community are but functions 
of the organized community ; the community are but 
functions of this organized planet; the innumerable 
planets that occupy all space are but the functional 
parts of one stupendous organism or whole, of which 
the spark of Life in the single atom is the integral 
part of all intelligence, force, and change. And, as 
you see and comprehend its modus operandi in the 
unity or organization of the lesser atoms of matter 
and life, so it is with the greater — at least as far as 
the veil of the infinite has been removed for our con- 
sideration. Therefore, the effect of the uniting of all 
the life, of all atomic matter, should, from a natural 
course of reasoning, produce an over-soul, or one 
great over-life, or God, 



( 368 ) 
LIFE AND MATTER PRODUCED GOD. 

Hence you will perceive from this course of reason- 
ing that instead of a personal God or being creating 
Life and matter out of nothing, that life and matter 
produced a God (over-life) out of something, i. e., the 
atom. (See Volney's Buins, 12th chapter.) On the 
one hand you are compelled to create a purely chimer- 
ical being out of nothing, or assume that he always 
existed, a supposed existing thing that, from itswery 
nature, is not susceptible of any known proof or even 
a reasonable conjecture ; on the other hand, if you are 
obliged to resort to suppositions, is it not more ra- 
tional to suppose that life and matter always existed, 
does it not furnish a real, tangible something that, 
while you can realize that life and matter do have an 
actual existence, and, as far as known, are indestruc- 
tible — i. e. having no end hence no beginning — then, 
is it at all at variance with the natural law of analogi- 
cal deductions or contrary to all known human rules 
of reason? 

If you are going to shoot, is it not better to shoot 
at even a real shadow than to shoot at nothing what- 
ever? 

After having begun our investigations from the 
least of all existing things known to men and traced 
this little insignificant atom upwards in a philosophi- 
cal as well as a scientifical manner, to the best of our 
ability, from cause to effect, we find that it leads to 
the limit of human knowledge, the over-soul of all 
things. 

And now we would ask the student or the lover of 



( 369 ) 

truth to begin at this exalted point to which we have 
endeavored to lead him — i. e., the over-life — and with 
that spirit of candor and fairness to which all lovers 
of free truth are wedded, trace this, our philosophy, 
backwards from known effect to known cause, care- 
fully, very carefully, and see if you can discover a 
reasonable inconsistency or a missing link in the 
chain of evidence which it has been our great pleasure 
to weave and place before you for your consideration. 
And now, before bidding you adieu, we would suggest 
that you get all the joy out of life you can, but not at 
the expense of another. 

Thanking you for your fidelity to our cause and the 
patience which you have displayed towards me and 
mine, Allow me to remain forever thine, 

VIVE, VALE. P. P. 



( 370 ) 



THE OBITUARY. 

What sound is this I hear at last? 
'T 'is Eoyal Charon's bugle-blast 
Warns me my sands are falling fast. 
Land me, good boatman, at the mole 
The light of truth I may behold ; 
Ferry me gently o'er your sea 
To one who 's waiting there for me. 
The eye grows dim, I cannot hear, 
I 'm drunk with joy and have no fear. 

Then, liail, brave Charon, boatman bold, 
Come pilot me o'er this new threshold 
Of fields unlimited by dimension 
To a higher plane of comprehension 
And, as we draw near thy royal moat 
Wind ye a loud and louder note. 

As I was first, just so I 'm last 

Of this ever-changing column, 

For all that 's earth must heed thy blast 

Farewell ! I '11 close the volume. 

Chas. H. Foster. 



(371 ) 



APPENDIX. 

INDEPENDENT SPIRIT WRITING. 

(April 14, 1890.) 

(This is a copy of a series of spirit writings, or in- 
dependent pencil writing, by the Spirit Sylvia, as dic- 
tated by her father, the Spirit Ptolemy Philadelphus, 
through the forces of Mrs. Helen Fair child. ) 

Attest, C. H. Foster. 

My beloved friend : What a great pleasure this is 
to me to open the chapter of these writings that we 
expect to give you in these sittings. We will have 
other work also to thoroughly organize your band and 
lay the foundation of the great edifice which we hope 
to reach in time; it will not be accomplished in a 
moment ; but fidelity and patience must be our motto, 
for we shall not always be able to give you writings 
at every sitting, as there is much you do not under- 
stand concerning the laws through which we operate, 
and we cannot always govern them. 

First, we will introduce Ptolemy Philadelphus, who 
has now joined us in our work, and is henceforth one 
of your guides. We will open with a description of 
the splendid festival given by Ptolemy Philadelphus 



(372) 

to the people when he ascended the throne as King of 
Egypt. This pompous solemnity continued a whole 
day and was conducted through the whole extent of 
the City of Alexandria; it was divided into several 
parts and formed a variety of separate processions. 

Besides those of the king's father and mother, the 
gods had each of them a distinct cavalcade, the decor- 
ations of which were descriptions of their history. 

The procession began with a troop of Sileni, some 
habited in purple, others in robes of deep red; their 
employment was to keep off the crowd and make way. 
Next to the Sileni came a band of Satyrs composed of 
twenty, in two ranks, each carrying a gilded lamp; 
these were succeeded by Victories, with golden wings, 
carrying vases in which perfumes were burning, nine 
feet in height, partly gilt and partly adorned with 
leaves of ivy ; their habits were embroidered with the 
figures of animals and every part of them glittered 
with gold. After these came a double altar, nine feet 
in height and covered with a luxuriant foliage of ivy 
intermixed with ornaments of gold ; it was also beau- 
tified with a golden crown, composed of vine leaves 
and adorned on all sides with white fillets. 

April 20, 1890— The Second Sitting. 

A hundred and twenty youths advanced next, 
clothed in purple vests, each of them bearing a golden 
vase of incense, myrrh, and saffron; they were fol- 
lowed by forty Satyrs, wearing crowns of gold which 
represented the leaves of ivy, and in the right hand 
of each was another crown of the same metal adorned 



( 373 ) 

with vine-leaves; their habits were diversified with a 
variety of colors. 

In the rear of these marched two Sileni, arrayed in 
purple mantles and white drawers ; one of them wore 
a kind of hat and carried a golden saduceus in his 
hand, the other had a trumpet. Between these two 
was a man six feet in height, masked and habited like 
a tragedian. He also carried a golden cornucopia 
and was distinguished by the appellation of the year. 
This person preceded a very beautiful woman, as tall 
as himself, dressed in a magnificent manner, and glit- 
tering all over with gold. She held in one hand a 
crown composed of the leaves of the peach-tree, and in 
the other a bunch of palm. She was called Penti- 
teris. 

The next were the Genii of the four seasons, bearing 
characteristic ornaments and supporting two golden 
vases, colors, adorned with ivy leaves, in the midst of 
them was a square altar of gold. A band of Satyrs 
then appeared, wearing golden crowns, fashioned like 
the leaves of ivy and arrayed in red habits, some bore 
vessels filled with wine, others carried drinking cups. 
Immediately after these came Phileseus, the Poet and 
Priest of Bacchus, attended by comedians, musicians, 
dancers, and other persons of that class ; tAvo tripods 
were carried next, as prizes for the victors at the ath- 
letic combats and exercises; one of these tripods, be- 
ing thirteen feet and a half in height, was intended 
for the youths, the other, which was eighteen feet in 
height, was designed for the men. A car of an extraor- 
dinary size followed these; it had four wheels — 



( 374 ) 

April 26th— The Third Sitting. 

and was twenty-one feet in length and twelve in 
breadth and was drawn by 180 men ; in this car was a 
figure representing Bacchus, fifteen feet in height, in 
the attitude of performing libations with a large cup 
of gold. He was arrayed in a robe of brocaded purple 
which flowed doAvn to his feet, over this was a trans- 
parent vest of saffron color and above that a large 
purple mantle embroidered with gold. Before him 
was a great vessel of gold, finished in the Lacedemo- 
nian fashion and containing fifteen measures, called 
metretes. This was accompanied with a golden tri- 
pod on which was placed a golden vase of adorus, with 
two cups of gold full of cinnamon and saffron. 

Bacchus was seated under the shade of ivy and vine 
leaves intermixed with the foliage of fruit trees and 
from these hung several crowns, fillets and thyrsi, 
with timbrels, ribands and a variety of satiric, comic 
and tragic masks. In the same car came the priest 
and priestesses of that deity, with the other ministers 
and interpreters of mysteries, dancers of all classes 
and women bearing vases. 

These were followed by the Bacchantes who 
marched with their hair disheveled and wore crowns 
composed, some of serpents, others of branches of the 
yew, the vine and the ivy; some of these women car- 
ried knives in their hands, others grasped serpents. 
After these advanced another car, twelve feet in 
breadth and drawn by sixty men; in this was the 
statue of Nysser, sitting twelve feet high and clothed 
with a yellow vest and embroidered with gold over 



(375 ) 

which was another Laconic habit; the statue rose by 
the aid of some machines without being touched by 
any person and, after it had poured milk out of a 
golden cup, it resumed its former seat; its left hand 
held a thyrsus adorned with ribands and it wore a 
golden crown on which were represented leaves of ivy 
with clusters of grapes, composed of various gems; it 
was covered with a deep shade formed of blended foli- 
age and a gilded lamp hung at each corner of the car. 

After this came another car thirty-six feet in length 
and twenty-four in breadth, drawn by three hundred 
men ; on this was placed a wine press, also thirty-six 
feet long and twenty-two and a half broad, this was 
full of the produce of the vintage ; six Satyrs trod the 
grapes to the sound of a flute and sang such airs as 
corresponded with the action in which they were em- 
ployed. Silenus was the chief of the band and 
streams of wine flowed from the chariot throughout 
the whole procession. 

Another car of the same magnitude was drawn by 
600 men ; this carried a vat of a prodigious size made 
of leopards' skins sewed together; the vessel con- 
tained 3000 measures and shed a constant effusion of 
wine during the procession. 

April 27th— The Fourth Sitting. 

This troop was immediately succeeded by a silver 
vat, containing 600 metretes, placed on a car drawn 
by the same number of men; the vessel was adorned 
with chased work and the rim, together with the two 
handles and the base, were embellished with the fig- 



( 376 ) 

ures of animals; the middle part 61 it was encom- 
passed with a golden cover adorned with jewels. 

Next appeared two silver bowls eighteen feet in 
diameter and nine in height; the npper part of their 
circumference was adorned with studs and the bot- 
tom with small animals, three of which were a foot 
and a half high and many more of a lesser size. 
These were followed by ten great vats and sixteen 
other vessels, the largest of Avhich contained thirty 
metretes and the least five. There were likewise ten 
cauldrons, twenty-four vases with two handles dis- 
played, and five saluces; two silver wine presses, on 
which were placed twenty-four goblets ; a table of mas- 
sive silver, eighteen feet in length, and thirty more 
of six feet; four tripods, one of massive silver and a 
circumference of twenty-four feet, the other three 
were smaller and Avere adorned with precious stones ; 
in the middle of these came eighty Delphic tripods, ail 
of silver, something less than the preceding, they were 
likewise accompanied by twenty-six ewers, sixteen 
flagons and 160 other vessels, the largest of which con- 
tained six metretes and the smallest two, all of these 
vessels were of silver. 

After these came the golden vessels, four of which, 
called Laconic, were crowned with vine leaves. 
There were likewise two Corinthian vases whose rims 
and middle circumference were embellished with the 
figures of animals, these contained eight metretes; a 
Avine press on Avhich ten goblets Avere placed, two 
other vases each of which contained five metretes and 
two more that held a couple of measures ; tAventy-two 
vessels for preserving lignus crol, the largest of Avhich 



( 377 ) 

contained thirty metretes and the least one. Two 
"■olden tripods of an extraordinary size; a kind of gol- 
den basket, intended as a repository for vessels of 
gold, this was enriched with jewels and was fifteen 
feet in length, it was likewise divided into six parti- 
tions, one above another, adorned with various figures 
of animals about three feet in height. Two goblets 
and two glass bowls with golden ornaments; two sal- 
vers of gold, four cubits in diameter, and three others 
of less dimensions, ten ewers. An altar four feet and 
a half high and twenty-five dishes. 

After this rich equipage marched 600 youths, hab- 
ited in white vests and crowned, some of them with 
ivy, others with branches of pine; 

May 3d— Fifth Sitting. 

two hundred and fifty of this band carried golden 
vases and four hundred vases of silver, three hundred 
more carried silver vessels made to keep liquor cool. 
After this appeared another troop bearing large 
drinking vessels, twenty of which were of gold, fifty 
of silver and three hundred diversified with various 
colors. There were likewise several tables six feet in 
length and supporting a variety of remarkable ob- 
jects; on one was represented the bed of Samuel on 
which were disposed several vests, some of golden bro- 
cade, others adorned with precious stones. 

I must not omit a car thirty-three feet in length and 
twenty-one in breadth, drawn by five hundred men ; in 
this was the representation of a deep cavern sur- 
rounded with ivy and vine leaves, from which several 



( 378 ) 

pigeons, ring-doves and turtles issued out and flew 
about. Little boards were fastened to their feet so 
that they might be caught by the people. Around 
them two fountains likewise, one of milk and the other 
of wine, flowed out of the cavern. All the nymphs 
who stood around it wore crowns of gold. 

Mercury was also seen with a caduceus in his hand 
and clothed in a splendid manner. The expedition of 
Bacchus into the Indies was exhibited in another car 
where the god was represented by another statue 
eighteen feet in height and mounted upon an ele- 
phant; he was arrayed in purple and wore a golden 
crown intermixed with twining ivy and vine leaves; 
a long thyrsus of gold was in his hand and his sandals 
were of gold ; on the neck of the elephant was seated a 
Satyr about seven feet high, with a crown of gold 
upon his head formed in imitation of pine branches 
and blowing a kind of trumpet made of a goat's horn. 
The trappings of the elephant were of gold and his 
neck was adorned with a crown of gold, shaped like 
the foliage of ivy. 

This car was followed by iiYe hundred young vir- 
gins adorned with purple vests and golden zones; a 
hundred and twenty of them, who commanded the 
rest, wore crowns of gold that seemed to be composed 
of the branches of pine. Next to these came a hun- 
dred and twenty Satyrs, armed at all points, some in 
silver, others in copper arms ; to these succeeded fine 
troops of Sileni and Satyrs with crowns on their 
heads, mounted on asses some of whom were entirely 
harnessed with gold, the rest with silver. 

After this troop appeared a long train of chariots, 



( 379 ) 

twenty-four of which were drawn by elephants, sixty 
by he goats, eight by ostriches, twelve by lions, six 
by aryges, a species of goat, fifteen by buffaloes, four 
by wild asses and seven by stags. In these chariots 
were little youths habited like charioteers and wear- 
ing hats with broad brims ; they were accompanied by 
others of a lesser stature, armed with little bucklers 
and with long thyrsi and clothed in mantles embroid- 
ered with gold. The boys who performed were 
crowned with branches of pine and the lesser youths 
with ivy. On each side of these were three cars 
drawn by camels and followed by others drawn by 
mules; in these cars were several tents resembling 
those of the Barbarians, with Indian women and those 
of other nations habited like slaves. Some of these 
camels carried 300 pounds weight of incense, others 
200 of saffron, cinnamon, iris and other odoriferous 
spices. 

A little distance from these marched a band of Ethi- 
opians armed with pikes, one body of these carried 
600 elephant teeth, another 2000 branches of ebony, 
a third sixty cups of gold and silver with a large quan- 
tity of gold dust. After these came two hunters car- 
rying gilded darts and marching at the head of 2400 
dogs of the India variety, Hyrcanian and Molossian 
breed, besides a variety of other species. They were 
succeeded by 150 men, supporting trees to which were 
fastened several species of birds and deer ; cages were 
also carried in which were parrots, peacocks, turkey 
hens, pheasants and a great number of Ethiopian 
birds. 

After these appeared 130 sheep of that country, 300 



( 380 ) 

of the Arabian breed, twenty of the Island of Enboea, 
twenty-six white Indian oxen, eight of the Ethiopian 
species, also a large white bear, fourteen leopards, six- 
teen panthers, four lynxes, three small bears and a 
cameleopard and an Ethiopian rhinoceros. 

Bacchus advanced next, seated in a car and wear- 
ing a golden crown embellished with ivy leaves; he 
was represented as taking sanctuary at the altar of 
Rhea from the prosecution of Juno; Priapus was 
placed near him, with a crown of gold formed like the 
leaves of ivy. The statue of Juno was crowned with 
a golden diadem and those of Alexander and Ptolemy 
wore crowns of fine gold, representing ivy leaves. 
The image of Virtue was placed near that of Ptolemy 
and on her head was a crown of gold made in imita- 
tion of olive branches. Another statue, representing 
the City of Corinth, was also near Ptolemy with a 
golden diadem on its head. At a little distance from 
each of these was a great vase filled with golden cups, 
with a large bowl of gold which contained five me- 
tre tes. 

This car was followed by several women richly ar- 
rayed and bearing the names of the Ionian and other 
Greek cities in Asia with the Islands which had for- 
merly been conquered by the Persians. All this train 
wore crowns of gold; in another car was a golden 
thyrsus 135 feet in length and a silver lance ninety 
feet long. In this part of the procession were a vari- 
ety of wild beasts and horses and twenty-four lions of 
a prodigious size and also a great number of cars in 
which were not only the statues of Kings but those of 
several deities. 



( 381 ) 

After these came a chorus of GOO men among whom 
were 300 who played on gilded harps and wore golden 
crowns; at a small distance from this band marched 
3000 bulls, all of the same color and adorned with gol- 
den frontlets, in the middle of 



May 4th— Sixth Sitting. 

which rose a crown of the same metal, they were also 
adorned with a collar and an aegis hung on the breast 
of each bull, these trappings were of gold. 

The procession of Jupiter and a great number of 
other deities advanced next and, after all the rest, 
that of Alexander, whose statue of massive gold was 
placed in a car drawn by elephants ; on one side of this 
statue stood Victory and on the other Minerva, the 
procession was graced with several thrones of gold 
and ivy, on one of which was a large diadem of gold 
and on another a crown of gold, a third supported a 
crown and a fourth a horn of solid gold. 

On the throne of Ptolemy Soter, the father of the 
reigning prince, Avas a golden crown which weighed 
10,000 pieces of gold. In this procession were like- 
wise 350 golden vases in which perfumes were to be 
burned ; fifty gilded altars accompanied with golden 
crowns, four couches of gold fifteen feet in height, 
were fastened to one of these altars ; there were like- 
wise twelve gilded hearts, one of which was eighteen 
feet in circumference and sixty feet in height and 
another was only twenty-two feet and a half high. 

Nine Delphic tripods of gold appeared next, six feet 
in height and there were six others nine feet high, the 



( 382 ) 

largest of all was forty-five feet high on which were 
placed several animals of gold, seven feet and a half 
high and its upper part was encompassed with a gol- 
den crown formed of a foliage of vine leaves. After 
these were seen several gilded palms twelve feet in 
length, together with a caduceus, gilt also, sixty-six 
feet long ; a gilded thunderbolt in length sixty feet, a 
gilded temple sixty feet in circumference, a double 
horn twelve feet long, a vast number of gilded ani- 
mals, several of which were eighteen feet in height. 
To these were added several deer of a stupendous size 
and a set of eagles thirty feet high. Three thousand 
two hundred crowns of gold were likewise carried in 
this procession, together with a consecrated crown of 
120 feet in circumference ; it was adorned with a pro- 
fusion of gems and surrounded the entrance into the 
temple of Berenice. 

There was also another golden aegis; several large 
crowns of gold were also supported by young virgins 
richly habited; one of these crowns was three feet in 
height and twenty-four in circumference; in this pro- 
cession was also carried a golden ciersas eighteen feet 
in height, another of silver twenty-seven feet high on 
which latter was the representation of two thunder- 
bolts of gold eighteen feet in length; an oaken crown 
embellished with jewels, twenty golden buckles, sixty- 
four complete suits of golden armour, two boots of 
gold four feet and a half in length, twelve golden ba- 
sins, a great number of flagons, ten large vases of 
perfumes for the bath, twelve ewers, fifty dishes and 
a large number of tables ; all of these were of gold. 

There were likewise five tables covered with golden 



( 383 ) 

goblets and a horn of solid gold fifty-five feet in 
length. All those golden vessels and other ornaments 
were in a separate procession from that of Bacchus, 
which has already been described. 

There were likewise four hundred chariots laden 
with vessels and other works of silver, twenty others 
filled with golden vessels and 300 more appropriate 
to the carriage of aromatic spices. The troops that 
guarded this procession were composed of 57,000 foot 
and 23,300 horse, well dressed and armed in a magni- 
ficent manner. 

During the games and public combats, which con- 
tinued for some days after this pompous solemnity, 
Ptolemy Soter presented the victors with twenty 
crowns of gold and they received twenty-three from 
his consort Berenice; it appeared by the register of 
the palace that these last crowns were valued at 2330 
talents and fifty mina, about 334400 L. sterling, from 
which some judgment may be formed of the immense 
sums to which all the gold and silver employed in this 
splendid ceremonial amounted. 

After the excitement consequent on such a display, 
Ptolemy Philadelphus, accompanied by chosen 
friends and two wise men and a sensitive, retired to 
his palace to enjoy rest and commune with the hosts 
of invisible forces ; the evening of the third day of the 
month and of the third day after their arrival at the 
palace, Ptolemy and his friends retired to a spacious 
upper chamber ; all the doors and all the means of in- 
gress and egress were made secure, all were assigned 
to seats of repose forming a large circle around the 
room; at one end of this spacious chamber were sta- 



( 384 ) 

m 

tioned twenty-three musicians who were instructed 
to render at stated intervals soft and sacred music 
which vibrated to the majestic ceilings, filling the 
large audience chamber with the sweetest strains of 
harmony. 

One of the wise men now took his place inside of 
the circle, soon he began a waving motion of the body 
in accompanying the strains of music and there ap- 
peared a second form of a man and they both moved 
about the circle, when another and another, joined 
them until there were thirteen occupying the inner 
circle,, moving about, conversing and gesticulating 
with those occupying the outer circle. After thirty 
minutes spent in 

May 10th— Seventh Sitting. 

this manner there came a rushing like the sound of a 
mighty wind, which filled every part of the chamber, 
and fleecy white clouds floated about and gathered to- 
gether bright flecks of light which grew in size, until 
it seemed to fill nearly the whole space of the inner 
circle, when lo ! twelve of the figures dissolved and dis- 
appeared in the one great ball of light; after a few 
minutes there appeared an opening in the ball of light 
and a figure, brighter than any light floated out, sep- 
arated and spoke in a voice that filled every part of 
the chamber, prophesying the reign of Ptolemy, giv- 
ing advice and speaking of the darkness that would 
fall over Egypt, of want and woe and many other 
events that have been fulfilled. 

After this all the palace was illuminated and a 



( 385 ) 

great feast was given all the guests, retainers and of- 
ficers of honor. After which Ptolemy and . three 
chosen friends retired to fast for three days and con- 
tinued his devotion in private for that length of time. 
Having gathered together in still another inner cham- 
ber of the palace, this apartment being held sacred 
to such occasions, the devotions were opened by all si- 
lently offering prayers after which sweet low strains 
of music filled the apartment, nine musicians being 
stationed near, in fact, only separated by heavy dra- 
peries. When an influence of rest and harmony was 
established, faint glittering lights floated about and 
from these lights white fleecy clouds formed and many 
voices spoke and conversed; invisible voices accom- 
panied - strains of music not rendered by visible 
agency, the prophet Daniel appeared and held con- 
verse with Ptolemy and called his attention to how, 
two thousand years before his reign, he, Daniel, had 
predicted it; he spoke freely of the darkness to fall 
over Egypt and of the want and war to come to the 
rising generation; he also spoke words of encourage- 
ment and spoke of death as only a change to a higher 
development and the awakening and renewing of 
these forces again, when Ptolemy should return to his 
people, even as had Daniel to him, and again establish 
the principles of his people. At this time he coun- 
seled depositing in vaults of safety a portion of the 
great wealth of the kingdom, certain treasures of gold 
and silver and precious stones ; he directed how out of 
iron and brass these vaults should be constructed that 
these treasures might rest in security until Ptolemy 
himself should divulge their place of concealment, 



( 386 ) 

which should be made known to no one but the wise 
men. Much other valuable information was given, 
also explanation of the mother veins of the precious 
metals and of the beds of gems, also of Solomon's 
treasures. 

At the approach of evening of the third day of their 
devotions, Ptolemy and his friends returned again to 
the bustle of life and the world of care and strife but 
a wiser and nobler man because of the divine strength 
and purifying power. To Ptolemy this communica- 
tion was a very angel of deliverance, a living re- 
deemer, hosts of fine and wise spirits were there and 
are still trying ceaselessly to help humanity to grow 
God-like in character and God- ward in destiny; your 
own angels and beloved spirit guides behold your na- 
tures unveiled and all revealed. A conscientiousness 
in Ptolemy here of this fact was a powerful incentive 
to strive to grow angel-like, also knowing that 
thought reflects thought and life reacts upon life. 

Life then was invested with a double sacredness, 
holding conscientious communion with purified im- 
mortals and believing in the presence of beloved spir- 
its, he was thus strengthened greatly to overcome 
every imperfection and strove to reach ideal perfec- 
tion, which became each day more real and was made 
manifest in his daily life. 

May 17th and 18th— The Eighth and Ninth Sittings. 

Ptolemy Philadelphus, after the death of his father, 
became the sole master of all his dominions, which 
were composed of Egypt and many provinces depend- 



( 387 ) 

ent on it, that is to say : Phoenicia, Cale, Syria, Ara- 
bia, Libya, Aethiopia, the Island Cyprus, Pamphylia, 
Cilicia, Lycia, Coria and the Isles called Cyclades. 
The tumult of wars which a diversity of interests had 
kindled among the successors of Alexander through- 
out the whole extent of his territories did not prevent 
Ptolemy Philadelphus from devoting his utmost at- 
tention to the noble Library which he had founded in 
Alexandria, wherein he deposited the most valuable 
and curious books he was capable of collecting from 
all parts of the world. 

This prince, being informed that the Jews possessed 
a work which contained the laws of Moses and the his- 
tory of that people, formed the design of having it 
translated out of the Hebrew language into the Greek 
in order to enrich his library. To accomplish this de- 
sign it became necessary for him to address himself to 
the high priest of the Jewish nation, but the offer hap- 
pened to be attended with great difficulty. There 
were, at that time, a very considerable number of 
Jews in Egypt who had been reduced to a state of 
slavery by Ptolemy Soter during the invasion of Ju- 
daea in his time and it was represented to the King 
that there would be no probability of obtaining from 
that people either a copy or a faithful translation of 
their law while such a number of their countrymen 
continue in their present servitude. Ptolemy, who al- 
ways acted with the utmost generosity, and was ex- 
tremely solicitous to enlarge his library, did not hesi- 
tate a moment but issued a decree for restoring all the 
Jewish slaves in his dominion to their liberty, with 
orders to his treasurer to pay twenty drachms a head 



( 388 ) 

to their masters for tlieir ransom; the sum expended 
on this occasion amounted to four hundred talents, 
whence it appears that 120,000 Jews recovered their 
freedom. 

The King then gave orders for discharging the chil- 
dren born in slavery, with their mothers, and the sum 
employed for that purpose amounted to about half 
the former. These advantageous preliminaries gave 
Ptolemy hopes that he should easily obtain his re- 
quest from the high priest, whose name was Elazar; 
he had sent ambassadors to that pontiff with a very 
obliging letter on his part, accompanied by magnifi- 
cent presents ; the ambassadors were received at Jeru- 
salem with all imaginable honors and the King's re- 
quest was granted with the greatest joy, upon which 
they returned to Alexandria with an authentic copy of 
the Mosaic law, written in letters of gold, given them 
by the high priest himself; with six elders of each 
tribe, that is to say, seventy-two in the whole and 
these were authorized to translate that copy into the 
Greek language. The King was desirous of serving 
these deputies and proposed to each of them a differ- 
ent question in order to make a trial of their capacity ; 
he was satisfied with their answers, in which great 
wisdom appeared and loaded them with presents and 
other marks of his friendship. The Elders were then 
conducted to the Isle of Pharos and lodged in a house 
prepared for their reception where they were plenti- 
fully supplied with all necessary accommodations; 
they applied themselves to their work without losing 
time and in seventy-two days completed the volume 
which was called Septuagint version ; the whole was 



( 389 ) 

afterwards read and approved in presence of the 
King, who particularly admired the wisdom of the 
laws of Moses, and dismissed the seventy- two deputies 
with extremely magnificent presents, part of which 
were for themselves, others for the high priest and the 
remainder for the temple. 

This version, therefore, which rendered the Scrip- 
tures of the old Testament intelligible to a vast num- 
ber of people, became one of the most considerable 
fruits of the Grecian conquests and was evidently 
comprehended in the design which God had in view 
when he delivered up all the East to the Greeks and 
supported them in those regions, notwithstanding 
their divisions and the jealousies there were and the 
frequent revolutions that happened among them. 

In this manner did God prepare the way for the 
preaching of the gospel, which was then approaching, 
and facilitate the union of so many nations of differ- 
ent languages and manners into one society and. the 
same worship and doctrine, by the instrumentality of 
one language ; the finest, most superior and most cor- 
rect that was ever spoken in the world and which be- 
came common to all countries that were conquered by 
Alexander. 

Ptolemy, being solicitous to enrich his kingdom, 
conceived it expedient to draw into it all the maritime 
commerce of the East, which, till then, had been in the 
possession of the Tyrians, who transacted it by sea as 
far as Elath and from thence by land to Ehinocarurs 
and from this last place by sea again to the City of 
Tyre. Elath and Ehinocarurs were two sea ports — 



( 390 ) 



May 24th— Tenth Sitting. 

the first on the Eastern shore of the Red Sea and the 
second at the extremity of the Mediterranean, 
between Egypt and Palestine and near the month of 
the river of Egypt. 

Ptolemy, in order to draw this commerce into his 
own kingdom, thonght it necessary to found a city on 
the western shore of the Red Sea, from whence the 
ships were to set out ; he accordingly built it on the 
frontiers, almost, of Ethiopia and gave it the name of 
his mother, Berenice, but the port, not being very com- 
modious, that of Myos-Harnus was preferred as being 
very near and much better and all the commodities of 
Arabia, Persia, and Ethiopia and India were landed 
here; from thence they were conveyed on camels to 
Coptus where they were again shipped and brought 
down the Nile to Alexandria which transmitted them 
to all the West in exchange for its merchandise, which 
was afterwards exported to the East. But as the 
passage from Coptus to the Red Sea lay across the 
desert where no water could be procured, and which 
had neither cities nor houses to lodge the caravans, 
Ptolemy, in order to remedy this inconvenience, 
caused a canal to be opened along the great road and 
to communicate with the Nile that supplied it with 
water ; on the edge of this canal houses were erected 
at proper distances for the reception of passengers 
and to supply all the necessary accommodations for 
them and for their beasts of burden. 

The following article was clipped from a newspaper 



( 391 ) 

eight years after Ptolemy gave this independent writ- 
ing:— 

" History tells us/' says the New York Ledger, 
" that the canal known as the Bahr Joussuf was con- 
structed 4,000 years ago, and is yet fulfilling the pur- 
pose for which it was made. The canal runs almost 
parallel with the River Nile for about two hundred 
and fifty miles. It turns and curves, creeping through 
meadows and along the foothills, carefully preserv- 
ing its level until it reaches a point where it turns 
Avestward, and running through a narrow pass, 
reaches a district which without it would be a desert 
incapable of cultivation and devoid of vegetable pro- 
ducts which would sustain life. Of course the state- 
ment that it was really built by Joseph, the son of 
Jacob, may or may not be true, but that it is of untold 
importance to that region need not be stated. There 
are traditions that this canal was originally intended 
to supply a lake which was nearly five hundred miles 
in circumference and that this lake was the source of 
fish supply of that region, and that the value of this 
product was at least 250,000L. a year. Modern 
engineers are giving much more attention to old time 
methods than they did half a century ago." 

Useful as all these labors were, Ptolemy did not 
think them sufficient for, as he intended to engross 
all the traffic between the East and the West into his 
dominion, he thought his plan would be imperfect un- 
less he could protect what he had facilitated in other 
respects. With this view he caused two fleets to be 
fitted out, one for the Red Rea and the other for the 
Mediterranean : this last was extremelv fine and some 



( 392 ) 

of the vessels which composed it much exceeded the 
common size; two of them, in particular, had thirty 
benches of oars, one twenty, four rowed with fourteen, 
two with twelve, fourteen with eleven, thirty with 
nine, thirty-seven with seven, five with six, and seven- 
teen with five. The number of the whole amounted to 
112 vessels ; he had as many more with four and three 
benches of oars, besides a prodigious number of 
smaller vessels. With this formidable fleet he not 
only protected his commerce from all insults but kept 
in subjection as long as he lived most of the maritime 
provinces of Asia Minor, as Cilicia, for instance, 
Lycia and Caria, as far as the Cyclades. 

Mayas, King of Cyrene and Libya, growing very 
aged and infirm, caused overtures of accommodations 
to be tendered to his brother Ptolemy with the pro- 
posal of a marriage between Berenice, his only 
daughter and the eldest son of the King of Egypt and 
a promise to give her all his dominions for her dowry. 
The negotiations succeeded and a peace Avas con- 
cluded on those terms. Mayas, however, died before 
the execution of the treaty, having continued in the 
government of Libya and Cyrenaica for the space of 
fifty years; towards the close of his days he aban- 
doned himself to pleasure and particularly to excess 
at his table, which greatly impaired his health. 

His widow Apame resolved after his death to break 
off her daughter's marriage with the son of Ptolemy, 
as it had been concluded without her consent. With 
this view she employed persons in Macedonia to invite 
Demetrius, the uncle of King Antigonus Coratus, to 
come to her court, assuring him at the same time that 



( 393 ) 

her daughter and crown should be his. Demetrius 
arrived there in a short time but as soon as Apame 
beheld him, she contracted a violent passion for him 
and resolved to espouse him herself. From that 
moment he neglected the daughter to attach himself 
to the mother and, as he imagined that her favor 
raised him above all things, he began to treat the 
young princess, as well as the ministers and officers 
of the army in such an insolent and imperious manner 
that they formed a resolution to destroy him; 
Berenice herself conducted the conspirators to the 
door of her mother's apartments, where they stabbed 
him in his bed, though Apame employed all her efforts 
to save him and even covered him with her own body. 

Berenice after this went to Egypt where her marri- 
age with Ptolemy was consummated and Apame was 
sent to her brother Antiochus Theos in Syria. This 
princess had the art to exasperate her brother so 
effectively against Ptolemy that she at last spirited 
him up to a Avar which continued for a long space of 
time and was productive of fatal consequences to 
Antiochus, as will be evident. 

Ptolemy did not place himself at the head of his 
army, his declining state of health not permitting him 
to expose himself to the fatigue of a campaign and 
the inconvenience of a camp, for which reason he left 
the war to the conduct of his generals. Antiochus, 
who was then in the flower of his age, took the field 
at the head of all the forces of Babylon and the East 
with the resolution to carry on the war with the ut- 
most vigor. 

Ptolemy did not forget to improve his library, not- 



(394) 

withstanding the war and continually enriched it 
with new r books. He was exceedingly envious in pic- 
tures and designs by great masters. Aratus, the 
famous Sicyonian, was one of those who collected for 
him in Greece and he had the good fortune to gratify 
the taste of that Prince for those works of art to such 
a degree that Ptolemy entertained a friendship for 
him and presented him with twenty-five talents which 
he expended in the relief of those necessitous Sicyon- 
ians and the redemption of such of them as were de- 
tained in captivity. 

While Antiochus was employed in this war with 
Egypt, a great insurrection was fermented in the East 
and his distance at the time rendered him incapable 
of taking the necessary steps to check it with suffi- 
cient expedition, the revolt, therefore, daily gathered 
strength till it at last became incapable of remedy; 
these troubles gave birth to the Parthian Empire. 



May 29th— Twelfth Sitting. 

My dear friend: I have concluded to discontinue 
the writings for the present and turn these seances 
into the positive and negative sittings. I have niuch 
valuable information which I expected to be able to 
give you in these communications but we can do so 
in the future through your own forces. ( Here I omit 
a part of Ptolemy's letter as purely private, C. H. 
Foster.) But we will do the best we can with such 
conditions as we can command and if our work is slow 
we shall be steadily gaining and will reach the 



( 395 ) 

principal of our highest aspirations in time. My 
fondest wish is to uplift my people and restore them 
their lost inheritance. (Again I will skip. 0. H. F.) 
Our adherents shall be of all faiths, denominations 
and nationalities, for these teachings are to convince 
all men of all things. 

Let me again express my appreciation of your en- 
deavors and devotion to me and mine ; most sincerely 
thine, Ptolemy Philadelphia. 






THIS BOOK 

Bound in imitation Russia, will be mailed (post paid) to 
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dollar and ten cents. 

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The most reliable way to remit money is by P. O. order, 
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No stamps will be received as payment for books. 

Direct all communications plainly to 

• G. J. and K. S. FOSTER, 

Alameda, California. 



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